All hail the era of new cool death. Finding good bands with cool sounds that also has an unflappable sense of style can be difficult. This goes especially true in the style of death, thrash, and death/ thrash. Death is currently undergoing a renaissance embracing a cavernous sound and occult outlook. Thrash, in general, has been under arrested development for quite sometimes save for a sparse output of innovation. This is certainly a lofty introduction for ripper and I wouldn’t want to infer anything aside from Experiment Of Existence being a wild ride through the catacombs of both styles just with a white knuckle sense of exhilaration.

Ripper’s Experiment Of Existence comes off the very traditional Raising the Corpse in 2014. Though the previous record had a wild bass which snaked its way through every song, the death / thrash was a textbook example of death thrash in the vein of Merciless and early Sepultura. It does not take long for Experiment of Existence to get weird and by songs like the instrumental “Anatomy Of The Galaxies” and the solo bass excursion “Chromatic Fantasy,” one has realized that you probably would have loved Ripper as just an alright death / thrash band but this is something else that is entirely unexpected. It is this innovation which not only keeps a band relevant but gives them the strength and ability to reach out and grab the listener by the throat.

Unspeakable Axe is a sub label to Dark Descent which appears to handle more in the way of death and thrash rather than death and black. Dark Descent has already proven to be more than reliable in terms of respectable music and Unspeakable Axe, after last years release of Scorched’s Self Titled and Unrest’s Grindcore is shaping up to be the same thing. Ripper’s Experiment Of Existence proves itself not only capable of emulating a sometimes forgotten threading of two main styles of heavy metal but also able to use that as a base into the a world full of psychotropic nightmares. Turn out the lights and pull those covers over your head. Things are about to get loud.