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Razor Of Occam: Homage to martyrs
12/06/10 || revenant
For some reason I cannot fathom, there are a number of people who have ridiculous romantic notions about the centre of Australia. The outback is a hot, dry fly infested hell hole that for some fucking reason is treated with both awe and love. It’s a cunt of a place if you ask me. Yet the outback is the main selling point for all our tourism campaigns, so much so that I wouldn’t be surprised if the rest of the world actually thought we all lived there. Truth be told, over 70% of us live on the eastern coast, far far away from the outback and in much more comfortable climates. We just like to embellish the truth of the matter.
Who saw the film “Australia”? Wasn’t it a quaint moment when the rains finally came to Darwin and they all went outside to dance in the rain? Ah, such a lovely scene and yet at the same time, complete and utter horseshit. Darwin is a tropical city, which means it rains a fucking lot there. But there we are, embellishing the truth. It’s an old saying: never let truth get in the way of a good story.
Which brings me to this lovely quote on the Metal Blade website promoting Razor of Occam:
“Originally spawned from the South Australian desert in the late nineties, the music of RAZOR OF OCCAM still emulates the harshness of its birthplace.”
And here we are again, embellishing. I’m not saying Whyalla, birthplace of Razor of Occam, isn’t the most livable city in the world. Oh no no no no no. But it’s far from being a fucking desert, as you can tell from this randomly chosen photograph from the idiotnet. That’s Whyalla just behind the well dressed individual. A few too many trees to be considered desert, but what the fuck do I know?
Thankfully the notion of the harshness of the music is not complete rubbish. This is one bristling motherfucker of an album. Many descriptions floating around describe it as blackened thrash, though a more accurate description would be thrashened black. Am I just fucking around with semantics in saying this? No I’m not. The music delivered here is predominantly black, with a flourish of thrash. To use the original definition would imply the opposite.
The songs can be best described as a monstrous wall of sound. Pummeling drums with rapid fire kicks are the backbone of this monster, overlaid with some melodic black metal riffs and the occasional excellent guitar solo. The vocals are dry and raspy, the kind that make you think the guy is fucking up his vocal chords just by performing them. It is a barbarous beast of an album.
If I were to pick a flaw, it is that the album tends to be a little one paced. The drumming barrage maintains its intensity for the full 33-odd minutes with little variation, and even the occasional solo to break it up doesn’t change things much. For someone (like me) who doesn’t listen to a lot of black in their staple metal diet, it does become a little too samey after a while.
For those not already in the know, 50% of Razor of Occam are also 50% of Destroyer 666, being Matt and Ian. While both bands are strongly black, both are distinctly different in their delivery. Where Destroyer 666 mixes their black metal with death influences, Razor of Occam touches on thrash. If I were pushed to it to say who I preferred, Destroyer 666 edges it, but only just.
For a band that comes from a small country town in Australia to be now basing themselves in England, signed with a major label and touring Europe and beyond is a great story. Despite the embellishment of their origins, there’s no denying that Razor of Occam’s journey has been an interesting one, and one that is surely not over yet. Their debut full length release, “Homage to Martyrs” is a fine album, and one that does us Aussies proud.
P.S. Thanks to forumer davedeath for filling in some of the background on the group and pointing out Matt’s center part on his hair hasn’t moved in twenty years. Good to know.
- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Metal Blade
- Website: Razor Of Occam MySpace
- Band
- Matt Schneemilch: vocals, guitar
- Ian “Shrapnel” Gray: guitars
- Alex Antoniou: bass
- Peter Hunt: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Altar of Corruption
- 02. Bite of Dogmata
- 03. Day of Wrath
- 04. Heat of Battle
- 05. Immortal Code
- 06. Pattern on the Stone
- 07. Flame Bearers
- 08. Shadow of the Cross
