Ripping Corpse, "Dreaming With The Dead"

Saw Ripping Corpse listed on some death metal lists and got their amazing Dreaming with the Dead.

I was expecting something heavy, but not exactly this. The highly processed/phased guitar reminds me of Euro-metal like Coroner, but the drums have some real thrash elements, and the vocals are fairly hardcore. Maybe it qualifies this as grindcore, I don't know.

I do know it's good. Real good. Strange chaos moments, heavy moments, psych-wank soloing, and those vocals. I guess the mainstream version of this would be Pantera, if that makes sense.

I was intrigued by the participation of Erik Rutan, who has played off and on with Morbid Angel and co-founded (founded?) Hate Eternal (in which Ripping Corpse guitarist Shaune Kelly now plays. If I'm not mistaken, the first album was recorded with one of the guitarists from Suffocation, Doug Cerrito). I'll address the question of Morbid Angel in another post.

Final Analysis: Dreaming with the Dead is an artefact of a bygone era, the sign-post to a path not taken by metal, and by extension, the world.