Positing death as release from the increasingly unreal, brutal cacophony of existence while relishing in any imagined alternative to the suffering of the wheel Talagante, Chile-based death/thrash metal quartet RIPPER return for a harder-lined riff obsessed tunnel through the inner self on this immense third full-length album. Awakened ten years beyond their last and with a ~fifth configuration at hand ‘Towards Rebirth‘ finds the band lacking none of the signature violence and cold introspection they’d first stoked nearly two decades ago. As they present their most considered high rate ‘old school’ death/thrash effort to date some of their prog-death tics and musings are shed yet the end result justifies as a strong reinvigoration and a rare point of well-stylized mastery for the niche.

Ripper formed as a quartet in Peñaflor circa 2007 when the original lineup were in their early teenaged years and stoked on the thrash ’til death transitional period of the late 80’s. Their work showed some great love for a few deeper cuts from that era be it Explicit Hate, Necrosis or Overthrow and of course the better known bands that’d inspired them. Together they’d managed three demos in the space of three years with the first two, ‘Ripper‘ (2008) b/w ‘Destroy the World‘ (2009), bearing some obvious love for early Kreator, Sepultura and ‘Scream Bloody Gore‘ in their choices for vocal cadence/sound as well as riffcraft. By the time they’d released their third tape (‘The Exit‘, 2010) that lineup would be shaken up a bit but the signature of bassist Pablo Cortés (Suppression, Ancient Crypts) and vocalist/guitarist Patricio Spalinger‘s sense for the elite underground death/thrash riff made all of the band’s work a reality on their celebrated debut LP (‘Raising the Corpse‘, 2014). I’d placed it at #28 on my Best of the Year list praising it as a golden combination of South American death/thrash and that same late 80’s side of Floridian death metal.

While I’m not sure if Ripper set a all-new standard for death/thrash in Chile back in 2014, the scene grew along with them over the years and there were already many side-projects brewing or fractured off by then, but they’d certainly awakened many folks around the globe to the Santiago way. Where I believe the true potential of the band exploded into something legendary was their second LP (‘Experiment of Existence‘, 2016) wherein a more technical, nuanced approach built upon the proposed components of the band’s debut with refined musicianship and deeper introspection. When I placed the album at (again) #28 on my Best of the Year for 2016 I’d remarked that the general combination of style was expected to some degree but moved toward their own golden ideal. Still, the shorthand I’d lend to anyone not familiar with that record is something like the finessed aggression of ‘Human‘ by way of the damaging rush of late 80’s Sepultura which you can figure lands somewhere nearby early 90’s Sadus. That is the high standard by which most enduring fans will judge ‘Towards Rebirth‘.

That isn’t to say that the band’s bass guitar forward, oft virtuosic 2019 EP ‘Sensory Stagnation‘ doesn’t count but rather that it went in a direction which ceased once the lineup had changed. It was however notably some of Cortés most intricate playing with the group. There was a demo (‘Paranormal Waves‘, 2020) beyond that point but it was another different lineup than we find today and sounded a bit like ‘Consuming Impulse‘. With this new album Ripper leans back into their core ideal as they continue to seek their own agency and voice within it, now sounding closer to the ‘Raising the Corpse‘ era of the band with less of the early progressive death inspired side of their gig engaged overall. If you’re heading into ‘Towards Rebirth‘ wanting a howling, fast-paced riff record you’ll be stoked on it from the get-go.

For this third LP Spalinger is joined by an entirely new crew of performers including drummer Javier Buzeta who played on Mayhemic‘s ‘Toba‘, guitarist Nicolas Young who played on Demoniac‘s ‘So It Goes‘, and bassist Tomas Barriga of epic heavy metal group Axe Battler. Normally I’d muse over how this Mark V configuration of the band might’ve inspired a different sound for Ripper upon return but again ‘Towards Rebirth‘ echoes the earliest intent of the band and is hyper focused on a riff-after-riff style which allows for some nuance and gilding along their crushing through what are basically ~4-5 minute thrash metal songs throughout. Opener “World of Darkness” is the perfect introduction in this sense, a grinding ‘Terrible Certainty‘ level cut which sets the tone to maniac aggression outright.

It is the title track, “Towards Rebirth”, which arrives immediately after which introduces something decidedly ‘old school’ death metal coded in reveal. We get the first real swell of non-backing activity from Barriga per the intro to the piece before a sort of Finndeath meets South American death-thrash entrance arrives with the two guitarists and later on. If the transition and solo at ~2:36 minutes in isn’t a nod to ‘Schizophrenia‘ then it’d at least invoked that feeling along the way. This song establishes what is potentially different about Ripper‘s approach on this record beyond ‘Experiment of Existence‘ in that it doesn’t so quickly reach for the Florida-sent early prog-death sounds for variation but still has that instinctive death-grip upon aggressive late 80’s thrash metal movement (re: “Final Hologram”) a la the best of Massacra or Merciless (Sweden).

The riff count and general flow of the album is unhindered, uninterrupted within the first five tracks and “Into the Coldness of Land of Dead” is probably the peak of that initial ramp. You won’t find many death/thrash bands today writing anything this sophisticated yet tunnel vision fed that isn’t directly associated to Ripper themselves. Hitting that point on the album really was the point of awe, almost an overstimulation of the underfed riff-centered cognition of my brain. That isn’t to say that “The Source Exterminator” slows down in any sense but that it pulls back a little bit in order to showcase a few solo trade-offs, a proper thrash metal “breakdown” and even a bass guitar solo in its final third, whipping out some variation at just the right time.

Smack-dab at the endpoint of the full listen “The End of Universe” features some of the best riffs you’ll hear on any Ripper album, specifically the ‘Final Holocaust‘-worthy groove which they develop in variation throughout. One of just a few songs included that let the ear breathe just a little bit along the way. It does well to lend punctuation to what is generally a restless, all-kill sort of death/thrash metal record squarely focused on its goal. Sure they won’t escape the Kreator adjacent fingerprint of their work with songs in this style but for my taste these folks’ve established themselves among the best to contribute to that realm and ‘Towards Rebirth‘ only reinforces that thought as it ends.

Production values (via the venerable Pablo Clares @ DM6 Studio) are noisome, chaotic and raw but not without considerable bass guitar presence. Drums are particularly well seated in space between the need for ninety percent throttled death-thrashing aggro and the other ten percent mid-paced turns/heavier grooves applied. There is a hollow, echoic quality to the whole deal as Spalinger‘s verbose lyrics are barked and snarled through the greater chasm imagined but this only adds to the chaotic, anxietous quality of the record. I’d particularly appreciated some of the backing vocals inserted into the title track and the use of keyboards on a few tracks as they’d added character to the first half in particular but I’d wanted more of each, or just slightly louder feature in a few cases.

The combination of the band having a lot to say on ‘Towards Rebirth‘ and the high tension afforded by its render did well to lend Ripper‘s work its own madness-at-world-end quality, a fittingly extreme sensation for such a high-damage record. At a time when most bands are kicking around three or four riffs per song these folks manage three or four times in excess and that alone ensures this long awaited record will find its people quickly, myself included. No misses on the tracklist, a fine soul siphoning portal to non-existence as cover art (via Paolo Girardi), and a perfectly orchestrated running order stick this one up high on my best of the year pile. A very high recommendation.

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