Just What the Doctor Ordered

This heavy metal band’s claim to fame is the fact that Phil Anselmo was their singer. This album does not have Anselmo since it was recorded in 1991 and Anselmo was in Pantera at the time. How is Razor White’s only full-length album? It is surprisingly a fantastic heavy metal album that’s enjoyable. It came out around the point in time where grunge was starting to become a big thing. This sounds like it was recorded and released sometime in the late 1980's. If I didn’t know which year it was recorded in, I would assume it was in 1989.

Troy John Marks has a heavenly voice. Of course it sounds heavenly on the song Backdoor to Heaven. He knows how to harmonize extremely well. Dare I say it? He’s a bit better than Anselmo! Anselmo’s voice doesn’t fit Razor White and I’m glad that Razor White got Marks. Marks sounds fantastic on Little Bit of Faith, which is one of the best ballads I’ve ever listened to. This song only has him singing and one guitar playing. The trouble is, it’s not long enough! It should have been 3 minutes, not 2 minutes and 10 seconds. Well what can ya do? It’s a fantastic song. Marks also sounds fantastic on 2 Young 2 B in Love and Can’t Shake that Heartache. He’s singer who’s never mentioned as a top singer in heavy metal, but I think he’s up there with the best of them.

The backing vocals by Wip Buras and Jimmy Hipp are great. Buras is the bassist and Hipp is one of the guitarists. Buras is an average heavy metal bassist, his bass playing is not that notable whatsoever. You don’t really notice the bass at all on this album and that’s a bit of a shame. As for the guitar playing by Hipp and Matt Thomas, there’s some great riffs in all of the songs. They don’t shred or go bonkers though and they don’t have to in order to sound impressive. Someday has the best guitar work, especially the guitar solo. Made in Paradise has a superb solo, probably the best solo found on the whole record. Matt Thomas plays keyboard on here. The keyboard playing is not that noticeable most of the time, I think it’s thrown to make the songs sound more interesting. There’s no whacky keyboard solos or anything like that.

The drumming by “Psycho” Stever is real damn good. The drumming is heavy sounding and the drums sound real heavy on Back to Heaven, Get Close to Me and The Day We Said Goodbye. They sound unique on The Day We Said Goodbye. He plays at a good pace, it’s not too fast or too slow. It’s somewhere in the middle. See not all drummers in heavy metal are fast like that dude in Nitro or some band like that. He’s not the best drummer in the world. He does have chops and he gets the job done.

For the most part, this is a real fantastic heavy metal album. I didn’t expect it to sound that great all. Boy, was I wrong! You might expect it to sound like crap and you are in for a bit of a shock. You will only think it’s crap if you are not into classic heavy metal, that’s understandable. If you like classic heavy metal a lot, I’m sure you’ll like this one. It may not be the best heavy metal album you’ll listen to, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. I thought the vocals stood out the most on this album. It’s a bit sad that this album is not that well known. Perhaps if this album was recorded around 1989, it probably would have been much more successful. If heavy metal remained to be very popular in the mainstream in the early 1990's, it could have had a chance and it could have even been a hit on the Billboard Charts.