AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: RIPPER — “EXPERIMENT OF EXISTENCE”

In the early days of this new year we had the pleasure of hosting a song premiere from the new album by the Chilean hell-raisers in Ripper, along with a review of the album by our guest Allen Griffin, who summed up the music with these words:

“Titled Experiments of Existence, this release in many ways appears to channel the savagery of groups like Possessed, Dark Angel, and particularly Pleasure to Kill-era Kreator. Yet, one thing that quickly becomes apparent to the listener is the precision of execution. One hesitates to use the term ‘technical’ for all the baggage that comes along with it, but this difficult material is performed flawlessly. The aggression, though, is never compromised. This is neither Watchtower nor Voivod, just a death/thrash hybrid performed at the highest standard.”

Today we’re bringing you the chance to discover fully for yourselves what Allen was talking about as we premiere a full stream of Experiment of Existence.

There really aren’t any weak links in Ripper’s line-up, and the songwriting allows all the performers to shine — the album even includes one track (“Chromatic Fantasy”) that’s simply a bass solo (though there’s nothing simple about it), as well as the multifaceted instrumental number “Anatomy of the Galaxies”. Both are as attention-grabbing and as technically impressive as the other full-throttle ragers that make up the rest of the run-time.

As Allen noted in his review, Ripper walk a fine line, and walk it like agile high-wire acrobats: They put the technical fireworks into their music, but do so without detracting from the primal energy and raw ferocity of this deathless style of death/thrash. To borrow from Allen’s review again:

“[T[hey don’t push the limits of their sound too far in a ‘progressive’ direction even though they certainly have the talent to do so, but they also don’t dumb things down in order to find the easiest path to brutality. And while Ripper certainly fall into the thrash category, some sort of nostalgia factor is the least of their appeal. Experiments of Existence grabs the torch of early Kreator, Pestilence, Death, and their ilk and carries it burning into modern times.

Experiment of Existence features fantastic cover art by Paolo Girardi. It will be released on March 4 by Unspeakable Axe Records on CD and cassette tape, and later on vinyl by Dark Descent. The album can be ordered via these links:

CD
Vinyl (black)
Vinyl (clear splatter)
Cassette
Digital

Visit Ripper on Facebook HERE.