Peterborough, a place with little going for it. Yes we have some great pubs, and a train station that can get us out and to better places easy enough, but when it comes to live venues for music of our tastes there is almost nothing. Perhaps once or twice a year we might be lucky to get a heavy gig at The Met Lounge, and we are lucky enough to have a few local guys get together and specifically set up gigs of the hardcore/death metal/black metal variety at a community centre (a convenient 3 minute walk away form my flat) and each gig so far has been outstanding. Yet despite everything against us and the lack of places to embrace our love for metal, a few bands have done well out of it – one being the newly signed black metal band The Infernal Sea, the other being the grind metal bastards Razoreater, and I guess I’m lucky enough to have seen them both countless times from the days they started out. I am really interested to see if they can carry out their brilliant sound and aggression from the stage to CD/Limited quantity LP (I hate being poor when a band releases an LP that would look so good on my wall!).
Recently Razoreater have just released their new E.P. a 5 track incendiary of a release. True to form and how they are live, there is no messing about with it. Vacuum of Nihil is straight out balls to wall grind, and I cannot wait to sink my teeth into it.
‘Nailbombed’ kicks it off, feedback abuse is a great warning of what’s to come, with an explosive attack of buzz-saw tones and blast beats galore, with the pure harshness of Bens vocals. A Nailbomb indeed! ‘I, Dreadnought‘ fights on just as harsh, a Napalm Death/punk vibe going on inside with the speed and aggression, maybe something to do with the fact it was recorded in the same place Napalm Death have recorded their last few releases? Reminds me very much of one of my personal favourite bands The Rotted with the punk feel, which is enough for me to be sold on its 1 minute 27 race.
‘Bloodeagled’ slowed right down from the punk sounds of the last track. Reminding me very much of Hail of Bullets. The sound of this release is very much their own, but the likeness to so many bands is uncanny, easily the track of the E.P for me. ‘Wrath‘ spits out so with much disgust and hatred, a purely filthy sounding track I cannot help but love.
‘Filth Scheming, Shrill Screaming’ finishes us off in a flurry of speed and ends as quickly as it started, before fading back into the nasty feedback sound. Absolutely beautiful! My difficulty now is trying my best to not go onto my PC and listen again but through my studio monitors, at 6:55 am. I really don’t think my neighbors would be impressed, but surely that is what the band wants me to do?
In whole, this is 13 minutes of brutal ear assault at its finest, definitely for fans of the buzz-saw tone bands like Hail of Bullets and Black Breath, and something I will no doubt have on often. One thing I really look forward to is the hope of someday soon being able to go down to my local, regular pub Charters, find it empty, and be able to convince the staff to stick it on! So should you ever find yourself in our soulless town and in one of the best pubs to nothing but noise blaring out, be sure to find me at the bar nodding my head along, with the most evil of smiles as I enjoy everyone’s displeasure as I’ll lean over and say (and not to rip off Wychwood brewery), but “what’s the matter boy? Scared you might like it?”
