Today we bring you the premiere of a song named “Magnetic Solar Storms” from the second full-length by the Chilean band Ripper. You can stream it at the end of this post. But first, we welcome back guest writer Allen Griffin, who provides this review of the album from which it comes: Experiment of Existence.

The thrash revival of the past several years seems to have been spawned almost exclusively by a focus on the Bay Area scene, to the exclusion of almost everything else that was going on in the past. Perhaps predictably, this thrash resurgence has often neglected some of the darker and more brutal roots of the sub-genre’s origins. Thankfully, the latest album from Chilean death/thrashers Ripper is set to fix the imbalance.

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. Continue reading »