PISSING RAZORS – Evolution

Pissing Razors. Taken literally, that’d probably hurt quite a bit. For a while, Pit Bull in the Nursery held the title of “most visceral band name,” but Pissing Razors may have taken the belt.

Pissing Razor’s newest release, Evolution, is their 5th studio album since 1999. Even if you had never heard them before, you can probably figure out by their name alone what you are going to get — blazing guitars, death vocals, light-speed drumming and violent lyrics. Where they throw you for a much-welcomed loop, with clean vocals and slower music, they become the most accessible, though.

The best song is the rapaciously brutal track “Hanging on the Cross.” The vocals are basically barked by Andre Acosta here, while describing an existential examination: “I sit in the dark corner of my mind, wondering will I ever be, will we ever see …” But when the chorus hits, a decrescendo to clean vocals offering the morbidly poetic line, “I’ve seen better days, hanging on the cross,” it lets you know that a brain is driving this music. While it can appeal to anyone looking for some aural barbwire to play with, it’s not just noise.

“Fall Away” comes in a close second on Evolution, mostly because it sounds like something Type O Negative would write, at the beginning anyway. The doomy guitars and vocals, coupled with lyrics like, “In the dark I’ll wait, counting the loss of time, does this mean I’m dead …” will remind you of Steele. But, the song revs it up about a billion notches then, Acosta grunt-barks again, and you won’t find anything Type O about it after that.

Remember back in the ’80s, when bands that played this type of music automatically were tall, skinny, only wore black t-shirts and black jeans, and had hair down to their asses? Well, two of the members have long hair, but the other two are clean cut, and it’s hard to imagine this kind of aggression coming from them. Don’t judge a book, eh?

One song that changes things up is “Replace the Day.” Its starts with intense double-bass, and the vocals are almost spoken, and then sung smoothly, leading to the chorus. The vocals are somewhat haunting here, and you know it’s going to lead into Acosta ripping it up again, but the foreshadowing of the lyrics and pace of the song makes more sense than probably any other song on Evolution. Plus, as has been stated before by this reviewer time and time again, they say “fuck,” in the song, which automatically makes it better.

Pissing Razors is on par with bands like Killswitch Engage, who can play the most aggressive metal you’ve heard, and then slow it down and almost make it pop-metal. But, Pissing Razors doesn’t do it as often, and for the most part, they are full-speed ahead at all times. Lyrically, these guys have more to offer than most bands in the genre, but they aren’t reinventing the wheel, musically. Nor are they trying to …

(Note: One cool thing about the CD is two versions (English and Spanish) of the song “Evolution.”)