Finally available on vinyl, Canada's thrash metal pioneers Razor were somewhat surprised when, after the release of their self-produced 1984 debut EP "Armed And Dangerous", major label Attic Records suddenly came knocking. The band signed a contract with Viper Records, a newly formed sub-label of Attic, shortly thereafter. "Escape The Fire" was originally supposed to be the follow-up to "Armed And Dangerous", but Attic had their own plans for Razor's future and put pressure on the inexperienced band. As a result, instead of "Escape The Fire", "Executioner's Song" was eventually released. Original bassist Mike Campagnolo explains why this was the case: "When you face reality, a young band always gets the short end of the stick when they sign their first record deal. It was no different with Razor. We jumped in at the deep end, but in the end it was the same for the record company, because Viper Records was a completely new sub-label. So in the end, there were only losers on both sides. The basic problem was that Attic just tried to exploit everything we released. They simply didn't understand that the scene at the time was just reinventing itself, getting faster and harder. The label completely missed that wave. Attic had an entrenched scheme of how they marketed bands, they couldn't understand that thrash metal was not a short-lived trend, but built on sustainability. This shortsightedness showed in the fact that they aimed to recycle a few tracks from "Armed And Dangerous" to combine those songs with material from "Escape The Fire". In the end, it became "Executioner's Song." We were just too young and inexperienced to disagree with the label on that." The original version of "Escape The Fire" now available was recorded on December 1, 1984 at Toronto's Future Sound Studios and produced by Terry Morostega along with Dave Carlo.
