Razor was formed in 1984 by Dave Carlo (electric guitar), Stace "Sheepdog" McLaren (vocals), Mike Campagnolo (electric bass) and Mike "M-Bro" Embro (drums). In the same year they released the first EP Armed and Dangerous, which was funded by the members themselves and was also limited to 1200 copies. The EP's success caught the attention of Canadian label Attic Records, which eventually led to a deal with the band. Shortly after this contract came into effect, the first album, Executioner's Song, was released in 1985. The majority of the album was written during the recording of Armed and Dangerous. In the same year they released another album called Evil Invaders. In addition, they now played concerts with bands like Slayer, Motörhead and Venom. A music video was also created for the album's title track, which was broadcast on MTV (USA) and MuchMusic (Canada).
In 1986 the next album Malicious Intent was released. After this release, the band parted ways with their label. The next year they released their next experimental album, Custom Killing, which was self-financed by the band. Since there were different opinions in the band as to how the same should continue, guitarist Dave Carlo and Stace McLaren finally parted ways with bassist Campagnolo and drummer Embro.