CRIPPER

Follow Me: Kill!

METAL BLADE German thrashers look closer to home for inspiration

Since their 2008 debut, Freak

Inside, Germany’s Cripper have been unafraid to collide thrash with blackened death, with the compass pointing firmly towards chuggy old-school hooks. Back then it was all about stripping out Metallica riffs, and even on 2014’s Hyëna, the opening salvo did a good job of ripping off Blackened, but here it’s all about Soulfly and thrash of the 80s German variety. To their credit, Cripper have got this genre pegged, and their newest drop is a groovy beast. ‘Resurrect, resuscitate’ snarls Britta Görtz on Into The Fire, which has live fave scrawled all over it. Pretty Young Thing loads up Destruction’s bullet belts ready to cause carnage in the moshpit and Shoot Or Get Shot finds its quickfire tentacles reaching for the scattergun. If you’re going to thrash, better do it properly. And Cripper damn well do. FOR FANS OF: DESTRUCTION, SOULFLY, ONSLAUGHT