Beats and yelling: Ripper

Towards RebirthOut 24th July on Dark Descent Records With its roots in Merciless or Massacra, but growing branches out to death metal with a more developed melodic palette comes the latest album from Chile’s Ripper. A stylistically far reaching effort that’s nevertheless delivered in a tight package of neatly arranged riff pockets. Dense but traditionally anthemic thrash vocals are complicated by darkly moralistic death metal accents, the choppy chromaticism of death/thrash acting as antagonist to the main thread. Verse refrains mirror traditional hardcore punk by shifting pitch without changing tempo or phrasing, thus allowing Ripper to accelerate the intensity whilst keeping their powder dry for developmental material. In this sense, drums offer a relatively minimalist package that proves to be the right fit for this music. Patterns are kept simple, allowing the percussive qualities of the guitars to guide the rhythmic flow. Equally, fills are kept to brief disorientating shuffles…