Dan Swano: An insurance for quality. With bands like Edge Of Sanity, Nightingale and Bloodbath, he already proved his talent, along with his production skills. He is also involved in this new death metal band called Ribspreader. He plays drums and lead guitars (pretty hard to do at the same time), plus he produced the whole thing.

This is Ribspreader’s debut: An unknown band hailing from Sweden. And they play….Swedish death metal. No surprise there! And to feed your preconceptions: It is exactly what Swedish metal stands for. Brutal with catchy riffs. A vocalist that punches the listener in the face with aggressive grunts/screams (or somewhere in between). Vocalist Rogga is also active in Edge Of Sanity and Paganizer, so he already proved a thing or two, although this music can use some screams now and then. Just to keep it interesting, cause for now it all sounds pretty good an brutal. Still, you have that feeling you heard it all before.

That does not mean it is a worthless and uninspiring record. No. The intention and aggression splatters off this album. It is just not original.

There are so many death metal bands that play this kind of style, it is hard to stand out in this genre. Ribspreader tries, but does not succeed. This is an album I will probably listen to a few more times, just because it sounds so fucking cool (the production is awesome). And maybe that is the intention of this band. No sacrifices, just heavy shit. The biography draws some comparisons with Bloodbath. Well, maybe, but Bloodbath is way more melodic and catchier than Ribspreader.

So, to sum it all up: Good Swedish death metal. Brutal, some cool riffs, but not something you haven’t heard before. If you’re a collector of this kind of style buy it. I have listened to worse copycats before. By the way: The riff in “Heavenless” is superb.