Onry Ozzborn's solo follow-up to Alone is light years ahead of its predecessor. Onry embraces the same subjects - hip hop, heavy metal, aliens and spirituality - but with more well-rounded results. In other words, every other word isn't some form of a rock band. While Onry comes off as a spiritually positive individual, he paints vividly bleak pictures of Hell. The dark, gloomy production from regular beat contributors Mr Hill, Smoke, Pale Soul, PeeGee 13 and Onry himself, delve into the keys and strings with an occassional foray into the harder territory of rock guitars and abrasive sounds. Onry could have held the album down himself, but impressive guest vocals from Gash, P.S.C. (Living Legends), Karim (Boom Bap Project), and Onry's Oldominion bethren JFK and Barfly, add variety to the project. The Grey Area is a consistently good listen from front to back, but a few tracks do stand out: "Def Shephard" is a creepy rocker reminescent of Sonic Youth, "Can You Hear Me" is a fist-pumping posse cut with Barfly and Bishop, "717" starts slow but works some bells into a funky beat, and "Our Way" is the commercial bid with Wu-Tang posturing courtesy of Gash. Onry Ozzborn welcomes you to the world of goth-hop. - Thomas Quinlan