This is a band I’d never really given a fair chance to, I’d heard them in the early 90’s but never really given them the requisite time to form a fair opinion on what they do, so with that in mind I thought I’d put on RAZOR Executioner’s Song from 1985.
From the outset it’s pretty obvious these dudes play a sort of proto thrash like Metallica (Kill ’em all period) mixed with a bit of Piledriver with some Venom thrown in for good measure. The recording on this is a bit rough but this is quite enjoyable. I’m loving the riffage on this record but I have to say the vocals don’t sit right with me. There’s some cool momements for the vocals in “City of Damnation”. In about the fourth song I have to say my ears felt like they were getting more intune with the vocals and I started to enjoy this a lot more.
It’s hard to imagine hearing this at the time. This was when for thrash you basically had Metallica Starting to crack the big time with “Ride the Lightning” and a whole bunch of thrash bands that basically were better than these guys. Shame of it is I don’t think it would have taken a lot to lift this up a level or two to at least punch with the big dogs. The recording quality is distractingly bad, and I think if they had put a bit more time into the vocals they really could have been bigger. I Like the dude’s screams when they happen but the main tone he uses is a bit offputting, and there’s a few times it just really doesn’t seem to fit the timing of the song.
The second side of this album is musically really cool. The riffs continue to flow and and is overall a pretty enjoyable slab of metal. Especailly the Song “Hot Metal”. Criticisms aside this was actually quite a cool little listen. I wouldn’t call it an essential listen but its still pretty cool and worth giving the time to hear once.
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