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Razor - Open Hostility
Released by: Relapse Records
Released on: May 5th, 2015.
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The third of Relapse Records' reissues of classic Razor albums sees the 1992 album Open Hostility, their last before 'officially' disbanding, back in print and this time with a load of special exclusive bonus tracks. The lineup has changed a bit since Shotgun Justice, recorded a year prior. Dave Carlo remains on guitar while bass chores are now handled by Joe Armstrong. Bob Reid returns to handle vocals while the 'drum programming' is credited to Carlo as well.
The sound of breaking glass opens In Protest, a track that Carlo obviously wrote out of frustration for some of the censorship issues that Razor ran into back in their native Canada. It's got a lengthy instrumental opening that takes up almost a quarter of its running time but it opens the album really well and sets the stage for the perpetually pissed off and angry album yet to come.
Sucker For Punishment keeps that trend going. Fast, blunt, to the point - an antisocial rant of sorts about factory workers being replaced by machines and the effects that this can have someone who remained loyal to their employer over the years. Those who dismiss the band should pay attention as they do quite often get political with their lyrics. Bad Vibrations is a faster track than the one before it, it's got a bit of a crossover sound to it, and Reid's vocals are as fierce as ever raging about what happens when a party goes wrong. We've all been there. The track slows down so that Reid can scream about the joys of scrubbing puke stains out of his rug!
Road Gunner is lyrically simpler than even Bad Vibrations as it's about driving fast and that's about it, but the music suits it perfectly: fast, unbridled and a little bit dangerous. You kind of expect it to end with the sound of a car crash but it doesn't. Cheers is a thrash/speed party anthem, the kind that would obviously inspire bands like Municipal Waste who spend huge parts of their discographies singing about drinking. You've got to love the applause that closes the track. Red Money? A track about the dangers of debt and when loan sharks come looking for what's owed them. There's a short but efficient guitar solo here just past the middle part and then some pretty intense shredding towards the big finish.
Free Lunch fits in alongside Bad Vibrations, dealing with a similar theme in that it's about being mooched off of by supposed friends. You could read into it and maybe think it's Razor encouraging certain people to grow up, but mostly it's more angry, speedy metal, as is Iron Legions, a track encouraging people to take a stand against pollution and acid rain, which was definitely a common theme in thrash metal in the late eighties and early nineties.
Moving towards the end of the album, Mental Torture keeps the pace quick and the riffs large… huge even. It might be the fastest song on the album, if not it's definitely damn close, an anti-cop song - or more specially an anti-shitty-cop song, that wears its heart on its sleeve. Psychopath is a sarcastic track about having a hard-on for violence and feeling like Norman Bates. You can put two and two together and figure out where it goes. It's short, angry and to the point. I Disagree is Carlo's response to the critics who have slagged the band in the press and then last, but not least, there's End Of The War. The three and a half minute long closer is an anti-war song that points fingers at world powers too quick to send solders into battle. Again, there's a bit more of a political slant to the writing here than one some of the earlier albums, but it works and it works really well. Carlo's guitar work kills and Reid's vocals sound a bit better here than on the last album.
The weak spots? The bass is really low in the mix and a bit tough to even hear in spots and the drums are… programmed. Hence, we get a slightly tinny, mechanical sound to the percussion where it should have really thundered and pounded and brought the guitar and vocals up to the forefront. That complaint aside, the good definitely outweighs the bad. If this isn't Razor's best recording, it's still a very strong one.
So yeah, those bonus tracks mentioned in the opening paragraph? There's more here than on the other two Relapse reissues. First up is Tow The Line, an unreleased track recorded sometime in late 1990. This is accompanied by two other unreleased tracks, presumably from the same sessions - Taking The Strain and Violent Propensity (this last one has no vocals on it). We also get an instrumental version of Taking The Strain, a rehearsal take of End Of The War, and then instrumental versions of Tow The Line, Red Money and Iron Legions. This material obviously and quite understandably doesn't sound as good as the album proper but it's interesting to hear this remnants from the band's past and their inclusion here rounds out the reissue in a big way, giving long time fans a reason to give this one a look even if they're already got the original pressing.
