History & Biography Razor is a stalwart central Canada-based speed and thrash metal group that was founded in the city of Guelph in October 1983. Guelph is known for two things, a university and Razor. There is nothing else there and even the presence of a forerunner of Canadian and world-wide thrash and speed metal cannot rescue it from the doldrums. In other words, it is a typical Canadian town where people are conservative, boring and voraciously gulp donuts (redundancy courtesy of Metallian).
Razor was founded by high school friends axeman and manager Dave Carlo, drummer M-Bro and bassist Mike Campagnolo and arose out of the pre-Razor formation Poison to which the three members belonged. Poison’s second guitarist Paul Chapman had died at the age of nineteen. The group was influenced by Exciter (who were called Hell Razor at first), Slayer, Motörhead and Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All. There was a time when Metallica had music worth hearing. That time is lost and shrouded in sands of time like Iron Maiden’s creativity or Lick’s Burgers. It was in such an environment that the act gained extreme metal underground momentum through Demo 84 (“Metal lets you live today/Bands like us, we lead the way”), which was followed by a mini-LP called Armed And Dangerous. The band was the blond-maned Kingston boy Sheepdog on vocals since spring of 1984 (Shane Logan of Toronto hard rockers Moxy had tried his hand at holding a Razor following singer and guitarist John Scheffel) who was actually a guitarist in the past and had joined Razor eight days before going in to record Armed And Dangerous, Dave Carlo on axe, Mike Campagnolo on bass and M-Bro on drums. The band rehearsed in the drummer’s basement of course and called its collective Sons Of Mayhem. The songs from the demo were on Armed And Dangerous, which was dedicated to Paul Chapman, and augmented by others. The band’s imprint Voice Records immortalized this sharp piece of metallic attack. The first pressing was 1,200 copies, but the band re-pressed this when the copies were all gone. The group was propelled by Dave’s speedy riffs, screechy leads and Sheepdog’s aggressive snarls. M-Bro utilized a double bass drum set adorned with the band’s logo. The group began playing locally and played three shows in 1984. Sheepdog would be arrested, but not detained by the police in the meantime.
The band obtained a six-album deal with Toronto’s Attic Records after the label saw them open for Anvil in January 1985 after having rejected them months earlier, but recorded a demo version of its tracks before releasing its debut full-length. This pre-production demo was called Escape The Fire, which was the original title for the sophomore record. Attic had also established a metal imprint called Viper. Razor would report that Bill Metoyer had contacted them on behalf of Metal Blade, but the producer and label’s time-lines were too stretched due to preoccupation with Slayer and the band had not pursued the deal. Executioner's Song was issued in the spring of 1985 and featured a new logography and an axe executioner on the cover. That it was recorded in the Mennonite hamlet of St. Jacobs means that the whole studio vicinity must have quaked in fear thinking that armageddon had arrived. The group headlined over Sacrifice and Slaughter at Larry's Hideaway in Toronto in the summer of 1985. Razor and Sacrifice would play together again, this time in Kitchener in 1986 and again opening for Whiplash in Toronto in 1988. If Executioner's Song was a revelation Evil Invaders – originally billed as Thrashdance by the band - was what made the band. The speed merchants had recorded this one in Toronto with singer Walter Zwol of Brutus producing and managed to shoot a video for the title track, which made it to Much Music. Evil Invaders was one of the first underground metal songs to be given the video treatment and told a tale of the undead. Like its predecessor, Roadrunner distributed the record in Europe and garnered the band some attention and promotion. Razor gigged with Slayer, Motörhead and Venom in Canada and the USA. The band and DBC opened for Slayer in Montreal in the autumn of 1986. Detente was also on the bill. Malicious Intent was not deemed quite as good and the band lost some momentum. M-Bro was reportedly taking drugs and not cutting it. The band claims it asked to be released from its Attic contract so it could license its records directly. The stalled momentum could be attributed to Custom Killing, which also suffered at the hands of a lacklustre cover artwork that the band had had to finance. Bassist Mike and M-Bro left in March 1987. Stace was disenchanted and had left in effect, but was brought back to record the album. He officially left in July 1988. Nevertheless, Violent Restitution had the band rid itself of the myopic yoke of a Canadian record company and restitute some more violence into the mix. The band’s imprint Fist Fight had licensed the record to be handled by Steamhammer and Roadrunner. The line-up had changed with bassist Adam Carlo, who was Dave’s brother, and drummer Rob Mills recording. The LP was dedicated to actor Charles Bronson who was mostly known for his right-wing gun nut wet dream fantasies, the Death Wish movies. Razor and Znowhite conducted a short run of US shows. Shotgun Justice again suffered from a weak visual appeal, but proved that Razor was not about to let up its sharp delivery at least. The record, which was issued by Canada’s Fringe Product, responsible for bands like Sacrifice (whom Carlo would later produce), suffered due to a lack of promotion and distribution. Still, this one had one big change in it: Sheepdog, who would try out for Infernäl Mäjesty, was gone and Bob Reid was in. Sheepdog had known Infernäl Mäjesty’s guitarists Steve and Kenny prior to joining Razor from his Kingston days. Reid had been in Samhain with drummer Rob Mills. Reid’s band had, in fact, opened for Razor. The Guelph thrashers would never be the same again. Razor and Sacrifice toured Canada and the USA in 1990 using the Metal Melt Down ’90 monicker. Adam Carlo exited in November 1990. Sheepdog would become a courier driver, a contractor, etc.
A Japanese heavy manufacturing concern, called Teichiku Records, compiled the bands’ most recent records into the Hobbs Angel of Death Vs. Razor CD. The group played Canadian shows with Disciples Of Power and Sacrifice. Open Hostility of 1991 was released at a time when the metal world was turning death metal and had left Razor behind. The Canadian boys, however, were uninterested. Rob Mills was reportedly incapacitated after having a knee caught between two cars and being in a leg brace and a drum machine was utilized. Jon Armstrong was on bass guitar. Deceased attempted to organize a US tour with Canada’s Razor and Sacrifice in 1991, but it fell apart once it became clear that the Canadians needed a work visa. This was it for the band. 02.10.1992 was a concert at Gasworks in Toronto and the end. Well, not really, there was a 1992 demo called Decibels that was re-issued in 1997 but the world had moved on, the line-up had been changed, Fringe had retrenched to being a record store only and Mr. Carlo would go around Ontario, Canada schools talking about and teaching music. Fringe Product did take time to release a compilation, called Exhumed, in 1994. The song Brass Knuckles was mistakenly listed twice. The second listing was actually the song Bad Vibrations. A flyer proclaimed the mistake inside the CD booklet.
The band officially returned after some cajoling by Bob Reid in 1996 and signed with another useless and underwhelming Canadian label, namely Hypnotic Records, which re-issued the Decibels demo as a record. The embarrassing cover collage said it all. The band was basically Dave Carlo and a partial line-up of S.F.H. The record with Rich Oosterbosch on drum went nowhere, the band threw in the towel again, but returned and became a sporadic live act. Carlo became an automotive engineer. There were no new recordings, but shows and tours would occur. Bob Reid would become the band’s permanent vocalist. The band appeared at Wacken in 1999. Armstrong remained until 2002. Adam Carlo returned for two years beginning in 2003. He and Campagnolo were, in effect, switching places depending on availability. The band announced it had been rejoined by bassist Mike Campagnolo in November 2005 and would record an album for Mausoleum Records, which was due the summer after. Dave Carlo had to undergo a hand surgery, which slowed him and the band down. Razor participated in The Gates Of Hell tour with Anvil and Exciter including in Toronto in 2005, the Montreal Metal Massacre Fest with Aggression, DBC, Anvil and Exciter in December of 2005 and threatened to release a live DVD, which never arrived, appeared at the Headbangers Open Air in Germany in 2009 and the True Thrash Festival in Osaka in 2011. This was filmed for a DVD that was issued in Japan.
Dave Carlo was diagnosed with Stage 2 oral cancer in 2012. He was also losing his eyesight. The band performed at a charity concert in 2014. Carlo recovered. Sheepdog would later have skin cancer as well. Razor appeared at the Trois-Rivières Metal Festival in March, the Manitoba Metalfest where the group even pulled out a new composition called All Fist Fighting, the Maryland Deathfest in May 2015, a Western Canada show with Annihilator and Sacrifice in 2016 and the California Deathfest in 2016 in the USA. Rider Johnson was on drums. Relapse Records went the re-release route and issued Violent Restitution, Shotgun Justice and Open Hostility with bonus material and improved artwork. High Roller Records had, and would again, give the band’s older material the re-release treatment as well. The band and Sheepdog had contemplated a reunion, but the relationship fell apart following some backbiting. Shareef Hassanien would drum for 2019 before Rider’s return. Shareef was a former member of Monarch Woods, Mutual Execution and a current member of Invicta. The band was working on a new record during the pandemic although this had been reported for the previous ten years or so. The pandemic postponed several Canadian and European shows including Rock Hard fest in Germany.
Relapse Records announced it had signed the band for the new record and was re-issuing Razor’s Armed And Dangerous and the Osaka Saikou double album in January 2022. The new album was entitled Cycle Of Contempt. A Toronto show with Korrosive was booked for the spring of 2023 and a visit to Europe, including an appearance at Old Grave Fest X in Romania, for late summer. Piranha Pit Fest in Montreal, Canada was to feature Razor, Whiplash, Skull Fist and Warsenal in May. Razor was touring Europe with Destruction, Enforcer and Crisix in the autumn of 2023.
Razor, Toronto-based Sacrifice, Ottawa-based Exciter and Jonquière-based Voivod would be the top forerunners of Canada’s extreme metal movement of the 1980s.
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