In the ’80s, the News Orleans heavy metal/hard rock scene was booming. While bands all over the world were heading out to Los Angeles, New Orleans was boasting it’s own booming metal scene. Bands like Lillian Axe, Dark August, Victorian Blitz, and Hagan (just to name a few) were packing clubs and playing to sold out rooms of anywhere from a few hundred to a thousand. While these bands may have not received the attention that the Hollywood bands were getting, they were still making a very important impact on young metalheads like myself. I remember looking at bands like Ratt and Poison and knowing that it was such a long, untouchable goal as a young kid in elementary school. Seeing all (and more) of the above listed bands playing literally down the road in my school gym on a Friday night made it all see possible. They inspired a young me to see that the dream was very much alive in my own neighborhood.
I already name dropped some of my favorite bands from that era but my absolutely favorite band was Razor White. Razor White was mostly a metal cover band that has been more known for being fronted by Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo but it was after the band recruited Dark August vocalist Troy Marks that they truly came alive. Razor White played probably more than just about any New Orleans band I could think of and they were huge. They always had a great stage performance. Tons of lights, smoke, pyro, all of the things that made a metal band fun to watch. And they did all of this in my hometown. Razor White released The Black Demo in 1998. Known as the Black Demo because of it’s simple black cover with the band’s logo, this cassette made the rounds and if you were a local metalhead, you owned this cassette. That or you had a dubbed copy of it.
Razor White was, in my mind, going to be huge. There was no reason that they shouldn’t have been. They had the songs, the look, the live show, and the passion. They wanted to be huge and when you saw them perform live, you would’ve thought that they were an arena band. Following the release of the Black Demo, Razor White released their first and only full length release Just What the Doctor Ordered in 1991. The album lacked the edge and heaviness of The Black Demo and showcased a more melodic, almost friendlier version of Razor White. While I definitely preferred that Razor White sound, I’m not going to discount it at all. It’s a fun, carefree hard rock album that unfortunately didn’t manage to capture the attention of the big wigs and give Razor White they chance they deserved.
Since the demise of Razor White, the members have all gone on to do their own things. I’m not sure what happened to most of the other guys but vocalist Troy Marks went on to have a very successful career as a wedding band leader, guitarist Matt Thomas went on to play in New Orleans sludge kings Crowbar (and then become a lawyer), and drummer “Psycho” Steve Joseph went on to be a professional pyrotechnician. The legacy of Razor White’s music has been legendary. The Black Demo exists only to those who own them or those who have taken the time to upload them to the internet. Physical copies of Just What the Doctor Ordered are damn near impossible to find and are going for over $200 online. I always hoped that these two releases would see the light of day in the form of reissues for years but thanks to the Portuguese label Lost Realm Records my wish will finally come to fruition.
Lost Realm Records had this to say:
• COMING SOON •
??RAZOR WHITE “Razor White – The Black Demo” CD / LP
??RAZOR WHITE “Just What The Doctor Ordered” CD / LP
When talking about heavy metal from New Orleans, Louisiana, it’s impossible not to mention RAZOR WHITE. Although the band is partly known for being the first band that Philip Anselmo was part of, RAZOR WHITE represents much more than that, especially for aficionados of heavy metal made in the United States. An example of this is the tremendous 1988 cassette (“The Black Demo”), which contains a valuable proof of what late 80’s US Metal could offer.
But RAZOR WHITE aren’t just a page of 80’s metal glory. The 1991 album “Just What The Doctor Ordered” represented the natural next step for many bands at the time: an album with a better production and more mature, only released on CD, being nowadays a highly sought after collectors item.
Being a very special band for our team, it is with enormous pleasure that we present the release of RAZOR WHITE as one of the first releases to be available in 2023! Essential for all US Metal, Melodic Metal and Hard Rock fans!??Both CD editions will feature unreleased bonus tracks, band biography, lyrics and rare photos. LP editions will have all the extras that our faithful followers are used to.
More info available soon!
Razor White vocalist Troy Marks had this to say as well:
I’m happy to announce that I’ve signed a deal with a record company called Lost Realm Records from Portugal to re-release the Razor White records. I’ve included some never before released bonus material as well. I’m hoping to do a few shows to coincide with the release. Would be fun! I’ve included the press release from the company below. Please follow the new RAZOR WHITE FACEBOOK PAGE for details!
This is some of the most exciting news I could’ve heard about and this is already going to make 2023 a hell of a year. Hopefully I will be able to have Troy Marks on the podcast to talk about Razor White’s past, present, and future. With the possibility of shows to go along with this release, you can bet your Cajun po-boy eating ass that I will be there with bells on screaming every word to “Never Cry Wolf.” Look out for the fat long haired dude stage diving. That will be me.
Click Here for Razor White Facebook Page
Click Here for Razor White Official Web Page (Still Under Construction)
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