Razor - Take This Torch

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Well this is fairly simple album, so I'll make this a quicker review. I had Razor's popular Evil Invaders for the longest time but its greatness didn't really hit me until recently. So I did what I needed to do and took a vast dive into their discography, honestly finding myself disappointed with several of their releases thanks to some horrifyingly odd productions. This was pretty annoying since Evil Invaders had this thunderously heavy mix with gatling-gun guitars rapidly firing away and gave off a rather vile demeanor. Eventually though I got their debut here and right off the bat, my face was blown into pieces. It's not nearly as evil as their follow up, but this quite a fierce beast itself.

Take This Torch ... hot damn, you don't get much catchier than this one. This is the kind of metal I could tune into endlessly and listen to all day everyday. Crazy melodic speed / NWOBHM-ish rhythms, layered with awesome bass lines, fast drums, and insanely memorable vocals along with the ultimate chorus itself. My enjoyment stationed itself throughout the rest of the album but once I was done with it, what came to mind? Sadly, not a lot sticks here and even if I don't argue against simplicity that often, Razor were just a little too simplistic with their debut and at times some of these tracks even sound a bit dated for 1985 (as in this is the kind of stuff people were playing in the early 80's).

Overall though this album really isn't that bad and heck, it's probably my second favorite release from them after Evil Invaders. The majority of it is just kind of a "hit or miss" case though, this goes for just about everything. Sometimes it sounds like McLaren is just slurring out random words and his vocals don't do much, riffs and or drums get repetitive, a song just doesn't work or develop, etc. But for the most part I think if you're a fan of classic 80's metal with an appetite for speed containing layers of NWOBHM influences you could still get a kick out of this. And no joke, but this album is definitely worth hearing for Take This Torch alone anyways. I'd say both Escape The Fire and Gatecrusher are high quality offerings as well, these two wouldn't have sounded out of place on Evil Invaders. I'll admit Fast And Loud is pretty catchy and March Of Death certainly isn't bad either. Deathrace also comes to mind having some of the best and original rhythms off the album.

In final I do feel like I should note that the production is definitely not pretty on this album either, though compared to several of the releases after Evil Invaders, the mix on this one just feels far more complete and listenable. It's fairly raw but with the material at hand here the sound goes together perfectly with the music. Ironically enough the production off their previous Armed And Dangerous EP actually beats out the mix here (which contains a handful of the tracks here), though I have to say I prefer this version of Take This Torch over the EP's. I'd say the cloudy atmosphere gives it a lot of character and McLaren's vocals on this one sound way better with his screams echoing in the distance away and whatnot. This album could really go hand in hand with their previous EP's though, so if you get this you may as well check those out too. Don't expect much of a precursor to Evil Invaders with this one but if you want some commendable Venom worship with it's handful of moments, give it a shot. "Hot, ready or not? Take This Torch!!"

- Taken from The Metal Archives.

AWesoem review RS, keep them coming. Thank you.

You know what? I have never listened to Razor. I will remedy that soon.

Thanks

They kick ass dude..There's a couple of albums on the blog.