Death Racer - From Gravel To Grave - LP

Raw and straightforward first wave black/speed metal infused with a nostalgia for the dangerous days of motorsports.

Hailing from Austria, DEATH RACER are nothing if not thorough. See, the idea for the band was born years ago while philosophizing during listening to Razor's "Deathrace." From there, a wellspring of inspiration followed – and the race was on!

DEATH RACER’s debut demo, released in 2020, was appropriately titled Qualifying. Musically, their most important influence, maybe – rawness, straightforwardness, DRIVE – are the same qualities a racecar driver must possess. Without zero fucks given and a will to make devilish sacrifices at times, you were never able to hit the final laps back in the dangerous days of motorsports; a certain backwardness and nostalgia for those days is the most important ingredient overall for DEATH RACER. In their mind, post-apocalyptic / dystopian movies – with their totalitarian atmosphere and hostile approach against all life – are mirroring in perfect symbolism that of relentless racing.

And so they race forward, more relentless than ever, with their long-awaited debut album, From Gravel to Grave. Also perfectly titled, From Gravel to Grave presents DEATH RACER as an all-pistons-pumping runaway racecar, chassis gleaming but torched black with exhaust underneath, its very construction pushing the outer limits of safety before all the screws fall loose and a fiery wreck ensues. For sure, it’s not difficult to spot the Austrians’ influences, and they wouldn’t have it any other way – they are transparent as they are thorough, to circle back to the earliest point – so therefore, there’s the obligatory “High Speed Metal” of classic Razor as well as the comparable grit & grime of equally old, raw metal like earliest Slayer, Exciter, Bathory, Hungary’s Tormentor, Bulldozer, true-metal Darkthrone, cult NWOBHM, Violent Force, and of course, erudite Teutonic thrash.

Still, it’s how DEATH RACER revs this noble engine that matters most, not how familiar it is (because what ISN’T familiar now?!), and they sneak some nitrous into that engine in the form of hardcore punk attitude and otherworldly black metal atmosphere as well as some touches of chorused guitar from old deathrock. But again, From Gravel to Grave is thorough as it is (filthy) fun, so its lyrics deal with true incidents / accidents on the world's most demanding and terrifying racetracks (“Nordschleife,” “Imola '94”) as well as the terrors of "real life" inspired by newspaper articles (“C.F.S.O.D.C”) or just plain fantasy (“Motormentor,” “S.M. Death Worship”) and daily struggles (“Inverted Crossroads,” “Traumatized in Traffic Jam Ejection”). All told, filth and fury and FUN. DEATH RACER is at the wheel, and you’re going From Gravel to Grave at 666 mph!

Side A:
1. Motormentor / 2. Nordschleife / 3. Inverted Crossroads / 4. C.F.S.O.D.C.

Side B:
5. Imola 94 (From Gravel to Grave) / 6. Racers of Death / 7. Traumatized in Traffic Jam Ejection / 8. S.M. Death Worship