It has been 25 years since Razor’s last full length, ‘Decibels’, and the thrash fraternity have been hungerly awaiting another sacrifice from the Canadian speed royalty every day since. Well wait no longer, ‘Cycle Of Contempt’ is upon us, so sit back, crack open a cold beer and prepare to windmill like your life depends upon it.
‘Flames Of Hatred’ opens up to chants of “Razor” before the band kick into full thrash assault and set out to melt your ears with an aggressive thrash beating. The album continues in the same style throughout, uncompromising, no frills, thrash at its best and this is by no means a negative when you can conjure up and deliver a lesson in thrash as well as Razor can.
The vocals from Reid sound like they have come straight out of the 80’s yet they still sound as relevant and as pertinent to the thrash scene as they did on ‘Shotgun Justice’ at the turn of the nineties. The guitars from Carlos don’t relent throughout the whole package, bolstering up the tracks with obvious ease and constantly providing pounding riffs and mesmerising solos delivered at warp speed. The drums from Johnson, especially on ‘Off My Meds’ are astonishing, the speed generated is simply astounding and almost mechanical yet with a natural flow only a veteran drummer would surely be capable of invoking.
As the album progresses it creates an inability to be able to remain seated, the backbone of the tracks along with the venomous and encouraging vocals cause every muscle in your being to ebb and flow with every beat that is delivered through your speaker stack. I know I have said it earlier on but the string work from Dave Carlo is absolutely mind blowing, the speed and precision that he merges together is absolute perfection, many bands rely on two, sometimes even three fretboard workers to generate standards this high, but for the solos and riffs of this standard be the responsibility of just one, it must be surely some sort of black magic.
Campagnolo is an absolute beast on the thick strings throughout and doesn’t let his bandmates outweigh him on the effort or workload stakes. The punchy and muscular bass riffs are battering and mauling throughout, creating a weight on which to keep the whole album grounded. Campagnolo works in complete harmony with Johnson to add the meat to the bone structure and this then seems to allow Carlo and Reid to run wild with their efforts whilst keeping it all a truly measured and beautiful melodious raft.
It may be 2022 and ‘Cycle Of Contempt’ is definitely thrash of a mature nature yet it still maintains a solid air of the eighties and nineties thrash movement which saw the birth of the whole genre. The tracks are raw yet sophisticated and the whole vibe is one which will transport you back to the days of ‘Bonded By Blood,’ ‘Eternal Nightmare’ and ‘The Ultra-Violence.’ Do not miss Razor if they grace a city within your grasp because these pit inducing tracks are ones not to be missed.
(8/10 Phil Pountney)
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