Evil Invaders

Within 6 months of their debut album Razor unleashed their cult classic sophomore effort Evil Invaders in the same year 1985. A year were thrash metal exploded with new bands coming out of the woodwork in almost every single continent with the exception of obviously Antarctica. Kicking up the speed quite a bit with this one compared to Executioner's Song which dabbled around with more traditional heavy metal song structures and tempos. Evil Invaders is a raw and brash effort of pure speed metal not letting off the gas one bit aside from a slight and I mean slight break with the title track which is still pummels through at a vicious fast pace and has also become one of the prime swansongs of the entire Canadian thrash movement.

A simple and raw production highlights the bands blistering sound as Razor were never the type of band to wow you with technical riffs or fancy intros and interludes, just pure blistering speed and aggression was all it took for them to rip your face off with their brand of thrash metal. Razor possessed one of the most shrieky vocalists of the genre Stace McLaren or better known as his nickname/stage name "Sheepdog". I like to view him as the Paul Baloff of the Canadian thrash scene as he carried a similar vocal style and the band had a strict view of "posers" like Baloff did at the time with a quote on the back cover of the LP saying “we spit on those who choose to pose, we thrash with all the rest…”. Other than McLarens amazing trademark vocals guitarist Dave Carlo is relentless on this album conjuring up blazing riffs one after another creating a real menacing affair contrasting with the shrieky shouts and screams from McLaren. Carlo would drastically improve upon his rhythm and lead playing throughout future Razor releases. the rhythm section here is pretty average Mike Campagnolo's bass playing is pretty audible despite the raw dirty production the album has and drummer Mike Embro keeps the intense pacing the songs have to alright timing never letting things too off the tracks however, his drumming isn't one of the best parts of the bands sound and gets worse on future Razor releases up to his departure after 1987's Custom Killing.

The songs on here are real thrashers and are quite good despite being real samey. A lot of the tracks here sound like they are modeled after the Metallica track "Motorbreath". Obviously they are more gritty and less polished than "Motorbreath" but that seems to be the template for almost every song on Evil Invaders. It is hard to discuss the differences between each track because they are so similar to one another aside from the opening instrumental track "Nowhere Fast" as it has no vocals on it and the title track "Evil Invaders" which is remarkably catchy and my favorite track on the entire album. There really is no downsides to this record other than the songs being similar from one another but it does what it's intention is and I feel that is to be one of the fastest and rudest releases of its time and I think it captures that atmosphere quite well compared to some of the other more purely speed metal type of thrash at the time. Even the album cover gives off hints at the speedy atmosphere and the vicious vibe of this record with a cyborg hauling so much ass on a Harley that it's humanistic disguise of skin starts peeling off of it's face. Over the years Evil Invaders has become a staple release from the Canadian thrash movement that started in the mid 80's.

All in all this album is a cult classic and is one of the most identifiable albums in Razors discography and in the entire Canadian thrash movement in general. Evil Invaders along with Voivods debut War and Pain really kicked off the wave of thrash that started to surface in Canada throughout the the rest of the 80's and pretty much started the scene there in my eyes. For 1985 this is a monumental release and was much better than what some of the other thrash metal acts around the globe and even Canada were doing at the time. Evil Invaders is a must have for any thrash metal fan and if you don't know who Razor is, this is the perfect album to start with.