Reviewed by Eric Saeger
Expanded version of of the Sony-propelled release from the melodic-nu-metal crew, who’ve opened for Judas Priest and whatnot in their native Phoenix. Like so many Metal Blade-level non-thrashers, there are tales of brushes with near-fame along their journey, in this case one of the guys touring as second-banana guitarist on such-and-so-guy-from-Mastodon’s overseas tour. They eventually roped in singer Chris Powers, whose Chris Cornell likeness has appeared on Guitar Hero, and blah blah blah, series of not-Ozzy-level connections, leaving our stage set for a real-world review of the final result. Proceeding logically, we must first ask how many bands might be named “Razer” or “Razorr” or “Razzer.” Answer: probably 65 million, the same as the number of years since an asteroid wasted all the dinosaurs. Next, how many minor-league metal bands out there have done a Zep cover (in this case ‘When the Levee Breaks’, which is as much a staple of polite culture nowadays as Bing Crosby’s version of ‘White Christmas’) and used a Hot Chocolate song or other disco-funk oldie as their “joke” tune? Answer: probably 22,000, same as the number of species of ants on the planet. But whatever; does Razer experiment with Egyptian modal scales, or put up the dough to fly in a bunch of didgeridoo-playing Aborigines to shake things up, or otherwise do anything to separate their interesting but ultimately same-same hard rock from the bunch of Megadeth-loving amateur teens down the block from you? Nope. So, like they say, next.
Grade: B-
