Executioner's Song

About

Easily one of the best Canadian thrash-metal bands, Guelph, Ontario’s Razor released their debut album <i>Executioner’s Song</i> in 1985. A few tunes here first appeared on the band’s <i>Armed & Dangerous</i> EP a year prior, such as opening song “Take This Torch,” a riff-driving onslaught of punch-throwing speed metal punctuated by the aggression of Stace McLaren's shrieks. “Fast and Loud,” another cut from the same EP, makes good on its title with breakneck rhythms at ear-pummeling volumes while Dave Carlo’s guitar work licks up and down the fretboard like flickering flames. McLaren deviates from his signature pterodactyl screams on “City of Damnation” to sing in a lower register that drops his vocal tone to sound like Hawkwind-era Lemmy Kilmister. He continues with this singing range on the album’s most salient standout, “Hot Metal.” A revved-up slice of bludgeoning brutality, the song inadvertently embraces all of the genre’s stereotypes with a straight face, sounding (decades later) both endearing and awesome. “The End” closes with stellar staccato-guitar riffs.

via Apple Music