I’m calling it now. Razor Sharp Death Blizzard kicked off the whole COVID-19 thing to set the scene for their new album, aptly titled The World is Fucked. Well, it makes as much sense as some of the other conspiracy theories. Hell, it makes more sense than most.
RSDB are the bastard, melded offspring of two other bands – Ridgeback and Swellbellys. One from the family of punk, one of metal. The resultant monstrosity is unsurprisingly violent and wears a straitjacket emblazoned with “hardcore”. As metallic as a flotilla of battleships and as punky as a thousand safety pin-pierced noses, the fusions of styles works perfectly – if you like angry, harsh, abrasive music. If you’re not in a bad mood when you start listening to this album, you bloody well will be by the end of it. As will your neighbours if you’re doing it properly.
The World is Fucked isn’t a technical album, it’s not full of audacious widdly solos. Instead it consists of punches and kicks and headbutts that just happen to make with musical instruments. I cannot the last time I heard a vocalist as pissed off as Jamie Clark. Daz McSwell chucks in some simple yet catchy riffs to accompany him, while Ross Corbett and Liam Roberts make the earth tremble beneath all four of them.
The rhythm section is best shown off by the wonderfully-named “Chug Chuggery – Wizards. Castles. And. Shit”. Chug and chuggery indeed from the string section. This thing could rattle the foundations of Minas Tirith itself. If you want something you can slam to, then bang on David Caradine’s favourite off the album, “Auto Erotic Asphyxiation”. Too subtle for you? You need to ramp “Parasitic Cunts” up to eleven and regale your friends (if you have any) with the constant refrain of “Why don’t you fucking die?” which punctuates every other line of the vocals.
Subtle, this is not. Being smashed in the face by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick would be painless in comparison. The World is Fucked is a vented spleen stewed in bile. Then wrapped around a large gold brick and swung at you in a sock. It should come with a health warning, not a tracklist.
The World is Fucked is out on July 17th
