Ripper (USA) - The Dead Have Rizen, LP

Just as the mighty fall, they also rise again. Texas horror-metal monsters Ripper have come alive with a vengeance, and a new album entitled ‘The Dead Have Rizen’, the long awaited sequel to 1986’s ‘And The Dead Shall Rise’. The new album, scheduled to be released by Black Widow Records in 2009, has been a long time coming, and well worth the wait. An iconic, and instant classic. The story picks up where it abruptly left off many moons ago, with guitarist Rob Graves wasting no time forming the quartet after learning that the original members were not available. The carefully handpicked players include shredder guitarist and Grammy Award nominee Stephen Bogle (The Hunger), who also produced this slab of death at TechSyn Studios in Houston, bludgeoning bassist Alan D’Angelo (Livesay), and destructo drummer Don Ramirez (Tokyo). Together, they pound out an offering of macabre heavy metal that is nothing short of world class. The thick, rich, and shattering clean production, coupled with excellent songs and Graves’ vicious tone, bring on the haunting metal power in spades, as ode’s to homicidal muscle cars, serial killers, seductive vampires, and masochistic lunatics pile-drive their way into your head like a 747. The horror-metal tonnage and ‘dead on’ vocals on this album are eerie and mind-blowing! The ten superb tracks: The Grave (intro), Hemicidal, Driller, 66 Angel Eyez, U.S. Tank, Love Me To Death, The Tall Man, the legendary Kiss classic God Of Thunder, In The Raw and Dark Dominion (outro), take you on a cinematic journey inside the head of Graves and company that will have you listening to this album again and again with morbid delight. You called, they answered, now reap the winds of death. The dead have indeed risen…Ripper lives! [Info from Black Widow Records catalogue]