Album Review: Killrazer - The Burial Begins
Reviewed by Richard Oliver
The Burial Begins is the debut album from Sydney thrashers Killrazer who formed in 2005 thrashing from the depths from the hot Australian wasteland. Their only previous release was a self-titled E.P. in 2008 and all three tracks have been re-recorded for this debut album whilst over the years the band have managed to rack up some impressive support slots for bands such as Malevolent Creation, Vader, Sodom, Destruction and Dismember.
The music on The Burial Begins straddles the line between old school thrash and death metal with elements from both subgenres. The riffs are very thrashcentric and there are some belters for old school thrash aficionados especially if you are into the more violent side of thrash whilst the vocals sit in more death metal territory especially in the style of more old school vocalists. The rhythm section flits between the two with a mix of thrash rhythms and a heavy inclusion of blast-beats.
Everything is ultra right as to be expected with this crossover of genres and there are some raging death thrashers on this album which were meant to have circle pits erupting for them such as Suicide Command, Unleash Hell and the furious title track. We get a guest appearance from Tim “Ripper” Owens on Burn In Hell which is an obscenely catchy number but my personal highlight of the album is the sprawling Sunken which has the mix of thrash and death metal down to a fine art with the inclusion of some melody and some absolutely blistering guitar work.
Killrazer aim to rip off heads with The Burial Begins and they certainly achieve that as it is a relentless and furious album which integrates a use of melody in a clever way which doesn’t detract from the violence of the music. This is a definitely an album that will appeal to old school thrash fans and death metal fans who don’t mind a bit of thrashing with the blast-beats. A very strong debut album.
