Pissing Razors - Eulogy Death March (2021)

Country: USA
Style: Groove Metal
Rating: 7/10
Release Date: 22 Oct 2021
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I've been in love with the name of this band ever since I first heard it back in the nineties. Sure, it actually refers to a dose of the clap, but it's a perfect encapsulation of attitude in only two words and nobody can claim to be surprised if they see it on a poster, wander into a gig knowing nothing else and hear this music erupting out of the speakers.

I'm not as much a fan of their style of groove metal, but they do it well and they seem happy (if it can ever be appropriate to use that word in conjunction with this band) to be back. While this is a seventh studio album for them, it's also their first in no fewer than eighteen years. They split up in 2004, a year after their previous album, Evolution, and stayed away for a decade. They've been back since 2014 but this is the first full length product since, after a pair of 2019 singles, Crushing Grip and Left for Dead, both of which can be found on this almost hour-long return.

I didn't really hear the groove in groove metal until Chemical Burn, three songs in, which finds a neat vibe. The first two, and much of the album, are pure attitude, spat out by an angry band in a barrage of staccato riffs that highlight how tight they are. The long pauses between riffs in Unsee are a recipe for disaster if a cover band attempts them without being as tight as these guys are. I prefer the opener, In Spite of My Scars, which seems even angrier than the other songs here, but I have to call out Result of Virtue as the epitome of this approach.

It really builds its sound on an incessant and monotonous beat, using not just actual beats on the drums of Eddy Garcia but overt chords on Geo Gomez's bass and Mat Lynch's guitar too. It's a loud and brash and in your face approach, a promise of violence built on that bass-heavy post-Reign in Blood Slayer sound that Pantera made such a career out of. It's an acquired taste and I have to say that it's one taste that I never acquired. My favourites here aren't the pure Pissing Razors songs, so Result of Virtue is a way down my list, but I'd bet it's a favourite for the die hards, if not the top of their lists, the best thing here for them.

I got into this early with In Spite of My Scars, the opener, because it's so uncompromising right out of the gate and because it unexpectedly finds some middle eastern melodies as it develops. That's surprising and I like surprises like that. I really like the title track, which is a bit more adventurous musically, with lo-fi tribal drumming and backing vocals that quickly remind of Sepultura. It simply gathers up power and barrels along effortlessly during the late guitar solo, Joe Rodriguez's voice lending it even more of a Suicidal Tendencies feel.

And I got that a lot here, especially after the title track. Left for Dead and Pulverized both carry a Suicidal Tendencies vibe, mixing the raw speed and energy of their earlier material with a groove from later on. Rodriguez has a voice that sits in between clean and harsh, as raw attitude as these rhythmic staccato riffs, and raw in feel too. He uses a raspy shout, so it's harsh, but the rasp often dissolves into the music behind him, so often feels cleaner than it is.

The other influence here may manifest itself a little obviously, through a cover. The way that the band barrels along like some unstoppable force just looking for an immovable object to challenge it is most apparent in Wasting Away, which is a Nailbomb cover. They do this really well and this is a constant approach through the second half of the album, especially on Crushing Grip, which has a glorious start, with the drums trying something different and the bass right in the focus. But it manifests itself most clearly on the cover, so clearly they borrowed it.

It's fair to say that I liked the second half more than the first. It's faster, though the Slayer riffs do give way to DOA style slower parts. It's punkier. It's sassier. And, even when it's borrowing famous riffs from things like Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song for Nothing to Say, it's a lot more varied than the first half with its purer and more limited rhythmic guitars. In spite of a few highlights, I'd have gone with a 6/10 on the basis of the first half, but I have to increase that because of the second. It has to be at least a 7/10 and, if this sort of groove metal is your thing, maybe further. Welcome back, folks!