Verbal Razors - By Thunder And Lightning (Deadlight)

French thrashers Verbal Razors have been around for over a decade now, and new album By Thunder And Lightning is their third stab at full-length domination. It’s not at all bad, either…

Although they are happy with life in the folder marked ‘crossover’, the band exists very much on the metal side of that divide; In fact the dramatic opening strains of first track (also the title track, by the way) might sound to an unsuspecting listener not unlike Twisted Sister in their Under The Blade days, but once they band hits it’s stride they thrash along very nicely. Second track We Are Rats is not unlike Anthrax (vocalist Simon often comes across like Joey Belladonna shorn of the silly classic rock pretensions), and the band often hit a comfortable grinding chug with bassist Marc Lecomte appropriating Danny Lilker’s bass churn whenever it suits the song. Which is often.

The clumsily-titled Jump Into Deep End (but hey, I couldn’t do this review in French, so who am I to complain?) is an absolute ripper; Everything falls into place on this track, from the excellent but not-overplayed gang vocals right through to the pristine chugging rhythm guitars that frequently break out of the morass to pin the listener to the settee.

The band show that they’re alive to current affairs, too; Aware of the recent demise of thrash Titans Slayer, they’ve helpfully written the almost-awesome Water Drop to notify anyone with ears to lend that they are ready, willing and able to plug the huge gap left by Kerry and Tom et al. And by and large they pull it off, too, even if Simon doesn’t sound as comfortable in Araya’s shoes as he does in Joey’s…

If your tastes run the gamut of all those names that were big between 1984-1988 in the thrash/crossover genres, then you’re gonna have a whale of a time with this record; it’s authentic almost to the point of nerdism, but it rocks all the same, and I’m having no qualms at all about giving this the biggest thumbs-up I possibly can. Mosh it up!