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Sydney thrashers Killrazer have been promising this one for a long time – at least half a decade and possibly longer.
Those who have followed the band will know that Killrazer has often existed precariously at best at times, so it’s a testament to their tenacity that this has been released at all. Be glad that it has: The Burial Begins is a masterclass in thrash.
A slow building intro leads to Salt in the Wound, a classic Bay area style thrasher that has featured on local compilations and similar things since at least 2015. It sets up Killrazer’s attack plan immediately, dark, heavy and rapacious metal that takes no quarter and expects none.
Suicide Command takes on a fearsome Teutonic feel like a lost Kreator track, something that carries through into the neck-breaking The Legions. Sunken takes the band into more epic territory, complete with mood shifts and interlaced and overlapping guitar melodies. Unleash Hell opens with a marching beat and ominous bass line before doing exactly as the title suggests; elsewhere, Burn in Hell simmers with a baleful malevolence. Every song bristles with savage and catchy riffs, blazing solos, Doug Dalton’s fire-breathing rasp raining down fury and despite, and a brutal drumming assault that keeps it all on a lethal course of thrash metal destruction.
It may have taken forever for Killrazer to get this out, but it’s worth every violent second.
