Fallen Fucking Angels - "Sign of the Razor" (DeathStorm Records, 2015)

Band: Fallen Fucking Angels
Title: Sign of the Razor
Genre: Heavy/Speed/Thrash metal
Time: 30 min
Year: 2015
Rating: 64/100












If I remember well, until a few months ago I had never heard of the Italians Fallen Fucking Angels. But now they are a band of real veterans since they played even since 1997 releasing 4 albums, and the first of them (“Fat Totalitarian Metal”) in 2005 after the early days spend through a bunch of demos with the moniker Fallen Angel (taken from the homonym first demo of the great Bulldozer?). So, this time I will tell you about “Sign of the Razor”, the 4^th album of Fallen Fucking Angels released on 17^th April 2015 on CD format by the Italian DeathStorm Records, a small DIY label.

“Sign of the Razor”, strong of a cover artwork which is both modern and so adorably absurd in ‘80s style, has 9 simple tracks of 2 – 3 minutes. Though the band dubs their music as “speed metal”, for me they play an hybrid between a muscular heavy metal, the speed and the thrash metal but playing all this with funny and humorous lyrics. Oddly enough, the songs with fast tempos are only 4, ranging from the opening track “Sign of the Razor” (very dynamic and even evil, in spite of the other numbers) to the cover of the Canadians Razor “Snake Eyes” (the most violent song of the album) through the instrumental “Interflug” (full of psychotic passages) and the hilarious “K.K.K. (Kous Kous Klan)” (which, in a certain point, becomes even a kind of ballad!). Instead, the rest of the album is characterized by mid-tempos like the strangely catchy “Horny Housewives” while there is also “Storm on the World”, slower than the usual.

Speaking about the lyrics, I must mention tracks like “K.K.K.”, where there is talk about a kind of Klu Klux Klan launching a biological warfare by poisoning the food. Very funny is “Horny Housewives”, a parody of the “Desperate Housewives” TV-series focused on a super-horny wife sexually persecuting her man! Instead, very smart is “Not So Stupid (to Lose Weight for Love)”, an old song of the band written against all those girls that would as a boyfriend not a man but a no-balls useless yesman.

But frankly, “Sign of the Razor”, after a gate hot, loses too much during its end by proposing mostly mid-tempos not so inventive, especially the very weak “Change of Address”. For me, in the long run the album is very little violent and, moreover, not unable to keeping the same incredible dynamism of the titletrack, which is the better song of the album. It’s a shame because F.F.A. have good ideas but, unfortunately, songs like “K.K.K. (Kous Kous Klan)” and “Horny Housewives” are not enough, though they are very funny.

Tracklist:

1 – Sign of the Razor
2 – Ready to Explode
3 – K.K.K. (Kous Kous Klan)
4 – Horny Housewives
5 – Interflug
6 – Change of Address
7 – Storm on the World
8 – Snake Eyes (Razor cover)
9 – Not So Stupid (to Lose Weight for Love)

Line-up:

Filippo “Butch” Belli – lead vocals/drums
Stè Giusti – backing vocals/guitars
Cristian Angelini – guitars
Leonardo Tomei – bass

Guests:

Mazza – vocals (“Horny Housewives”)
Alessandro Paolucci – bass (“Snake Eyes”)

BandCamp: http://fallenfuckingangelsffa.bandcamp.com/
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/FFA-Speed-Metal-Barbeque-218385094923223/
DeathStorm Records: http://www.dstormrecords.com/
FaceBook DeathStorm Records: http://www.facebook.com/deathstormrecords