It’s really incredible to think about what an insane grasp that South America had on thrash in its most brutal iterations (blackened thrash, death-thrash, etc.). Some 40 years on and releases like Sepultura’s Bestial Devastation (1985), Sarcófago’s I.N.R.I. (1987), and Vulcano’s Bloody Vengeance (1986) are still as unrelenting as ever. In the decades since that initial underground explosion, there’ve been no shortage of similarly natured South American barbarians keeping the ancient brutal thrash flame burning, with perhaps no act being more prolific than Ripper out of Chile. Back in the mid ’10s, these maniacs absolutely decimated anything remotely thrash coming out of the northern hemisphere with back to back bruisers in 2014’s Raising the Corpse and 2016’s Experiment of Existence. It took a whole decade, but 2026 sees Ripper going for a hat trick with their long-awaited new album, Towards Rebirth.
A lot has happened in the Ripper camp since we last heard from them. For one, the aptly titled Towards Rebirth boasts a brand new lineup. Guitarist Nicolás Young, formerly of Critical Defiance, and drummer Javier Buzeta entered the fold in 2023, while bassist Tomás Barriga joined last year. Only founding frontman and guitarist Patricio Spalinger remains from the band’s “classic” ’10s lineup, though in all fairness, Ripper was always his band from the get-go. While the faces that make up Ripper have changed, the band’s modus operandi have not. If anything, a decade away has caused them to grow faster, heavier, and more violent than ever before, massacring the masses with 9 outbursts straight out of the glory days of death-thrash.
The thrashing portion of their sound owes much to Beneath the Remains era Sepultura and Pleasure to Kill era Kreator. This is unhinged, schizophrenic (pun fully intended), total non-stop thrashing with zero breathing room whatsoever. Following the obligatory soundscape intro that is “The Secular Awakening”, “World of Darkness” picks up right where Experiment left off, assault us with blindingly fast tempos, lunatic riffage, and barked vocals. Even the most skilled headbangers and moshists will have a hard time keeping up with this one, not to mention equally chaotic ragers like “Final Hologram” and “Messages from the Other Side”.
On the death side of the spectrum, we hear subtle nods to the genre in its heyday circa ’88-’89, particularly riffs, tones, and arrangements reminiscent of Death’s Leprosy (1988) and Pestilence’s Consuming Impulse (1989). These maneuvers are particularly noticeable on cuts like the title track and “Messages from the Other Side”. As responsible as the band themselves are for writing music of this nature, I must also give huge props to the production job on here, courtesy of Pablo Clares, which sees the rhythm section matching the intensity of the guitar riffs and vocals themselves. Put it all together, and you’ve got an old school affair in the purest sense of the term, each instrument boasting its own singular voice and the end result being a triumphant cacophony of carnage.
Towards Rebirth is as welcome of a rebirth that one could ask from Ripper. There’s no reinventing of the wheel or braindead bandwagoning to be found: Just the same thing they’ve always been great at, executed with the type of precision that comes with age, yet without ever losing that savage spirit. As their moniker tells you, Ripper rips, and this album does too. If you’re looking for a first-gen death-thrash extravaganza guaranteed to tear you in half, get your grubby paws on Towards Rebirth and buckle up. This level of velocity is lethal!
9 out of 10
Label: Dark Descent Records
Genre: Death/Thrash Metal
For fans of: Sepultura, Kreator, Death
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