Chilean death/thrash outfit RIPPER has released its third studio album, "Towards Rebirth," via Dark Descent Records, marking the band's first full-length since 2016's "Experiment Of Existence" after a gap of exactly a decade.
The ten-track record leans firmly into old-school death/thrash territory, drawing clear lineage from the early, more primitive output of bands like SEPULTURA, KREATOR, PESTILENCE and SADUS. That throwback approach runs through both the songwriting and the album's raw, live-sounding production, recorded, mixed and mastered by Pablo Clares at DM6 Studio.
Guitarist and vocalist Patricio Spalinger is the only member remaining from RIPPER's earlier lineups, with the rest of the band's current roster having joined gradually between 2023 and 2025. That turnover means "Towards Rebirth" effectively introduces a new chapter for RIPPER while still anchoring the project in Spalinger's original vision, a balance reflected in the album's title and its framing as both a continuation and a fresh start for the band.
RIPPER has spent close to two decades operating within Chile's underground death/thrash scene, a scene that has produced a steady stream of acts drawing on the same first-wave death metal and thrash influences that shaped "Towards Rebirth." With Dark Descent Records — a label known for championing old-school death metal releases — now behind the band, "Towards Rebirth" gives RIPPER its widest distribution to date after a lineup rebuild that took the better part of three years to complete.
For listeners drawn to unpolished, riff-driven death/thrash in the vein of the genre's mid-to-late-1980s roots, "Towards Rebirth" offers ten tracks built squarely around that formula, positioning RIPPER's long-awaited follow-up as a faithful entry in a lineage the band has never strayed far from.