No matter how much praise bands like Anvil or Sacrifice or even Voivod get, the true kings of the Canadian metal underground are Guelph's own Razor, but before turning into the unstoppable thrashing juggernaut of a band that released Evil Invaders and Violent Restitution there was the Executioners Song album. Much like their American counterparts Metallica and Slayer, Razor's debut still had the shadow of the pre-thrash NWOBHM lurking over it, sure there's pure thrash songs on this album, but scattered throughout are some of the most rocknrollin' trad/trash transitional points these ears have ever heard. Still keeping in line with puberty-cracking Hetfield and shriek era Araya, Razor's own Stace Mclaren provides some piercing banshee wails that one could argue were the turning point to what would eventually evolve into the now genre-spanding "black metal" scream. Another cool thing about this album is how parts of songs are brought back in later tunes to kind of tie it all into one uniform sound on the album, like the one lead bit in Fast And Loud making an appearance in Hot Metal. Overall, a totally solid debut that never got the attention it deserved on the other side of the border.

I have never heard this tape. Better check it out.

Oh man, goin' through the Razor discography's such a treat, definitely the most consistent of the Canadian ragers, first six albums all rip in their own unique way, the seventh is where they kinda start to dive then the last one, Decibels, is just not worth looking into at all. A cool album by them I never hear anyone ever mention is Custom Killing, it was only released in Canada (and only on cassette and vinyl, any CD versions are boots), it's pretty different from anything else they've done, got an almost proggy element to it that borderlines Megadeth territory, two 11 minute songs on it even, the opening track Survival Of The Fittest has this massive build, takes a full five minutes for the vocals to kick in, everything before's this giant storm starting to ferment.

'Take This Torch' is like being shot through the looking glass on the hot rails to hell

Listening to some Razor songs on youtubes right now, cool shit.

Yes, great call on "Custom Killing". An alltime favorite for the reasons you mention. I have a cd boot of it and it sounds terrible as you can imagine. Hopefully someday there will be a proper reissue.

There is no Razor within my collection.
What's a good starting point? (i've been recommended Open Hostility + Shotgun Justice)

Open Hostility and Shotgun Justice both have the new singer, a guy from my hometown by the name of Bob Reid, he's alright and Shotgun is one of their most intense albums, but the album I've seen make the most conversions to the band (myself included) was by far Evil Invaders, if ya like that one then tinker around with the first five records to see the band's evolution, then move onto the Bob era.