IN an unofficial communication theSun had with one-man death metal band Ripped to Shreds back in 2020, frontman Andrew Lee mentioned how he had tour plans that involved Malaysia.
Since then, the pandemic came and uprooted the tour potential in its global tide of pestilence. Along the way, Lee expanded the band into a full unit while releasing two full-length albums and a split album.
Released in 2020 and 2022, Luan and Jubian demonstrated a steady upwards trajectory by Ripped to Shreds in its writing and willingness to get dirty in its approach to old school death metal (OSDM).
The band’s fourth and latest album released late last month, Sanshi is no different. Like its previous albums, Ripped to Shred’s fourth project is consistent in its OSDM foundation while going further with the blending in of modern embellishments and grindcore elements.
Atop that foundation, Sanshi runs the gauntlet on its wide range of influences and sounds from classic death metal to raw punk aggression and fist-pumping thrash metal. There are even progressive metal-esque aspects such as the melodic guitar solos on tracks such as Into the Court of Yanluowang and Cultivating towards Ascension.
Though Ripped to Shreds’s early music were all written and performed by Lee, which were formative to its underground reputation, Sanshi is testament to how much better the band’s music has grown since the first album and in the years after Lee opened the band up.
Everything that Lee brought as a guitarist, vocalist and composer is now carried higher by the other talented ghouls in Ripped to Shreds such as the powerful drumming and blast beats by Brian Do, particularly on tracks such as Horrendous Corpse Resurrection and Corpse Betrothal.
Lee’s already impressive axe-wielding is now accompanied by second guitarist Michael Chavez, with tracks such as Feast of the Deceased demonstrating the impeccable back-and-forth between both guitars.
As Lee and his bandmates belt out chugging solos and blast beats as they stare down the Chinese god of death Yan Luo Wang, Sanshi proves to be yet another step up as Ripped to Shreds continue to reinvent and polish its own sound.
