“The San Jose band RIPPED TO SHREDS are rising stars in the metal world thanks to their ferocious, electric take on death metal, largely inspired by their experiences as Asian-Americans.” – Stereogum
RIPPED TO SHREDS return with their highly anticipated new album, Sanshi. The band explodes out of the underground with all the blood-soaked hallmarks of the hellacious RIPPED TO SHREDS sound - an onslaught of frenetic dueling solos, blasting drums, and van Drunen-esque vocals that further fuse the grit and grime of old school Death Metal and Grind with the here and now. Helmed by guitarist and frontman Andrew Lee, RIPPED TO SHREDS are as fierce and focused as they've ever been.
Conceptually, Sanshi sees the band dig into a morbid fixation on death and the afterlife in the context of traditional Chinese folklore. Tracks like the lead single “Perverting the Funeral Rites,” is a song inspired by obscure funeral rites in Taiwan, wherein exotic dancers perform lithe rituals for living and dead alike. Elsewhere, “Force Fed” delves into the legend of Meng Po’s "Elixir of Forgetfulness", which when drunk by the dead wipes their memories clean before they are reborn into their next incarnation. “Living In Effigy” was inspired by real life tales of photographers traversing remote rural China, taking funeral portraits of the elderly who died in solitude.
Sanshi's cover art comes courtesy of Lee’s long-term collaborator, artist Guang Yang, and depicts a scene of Yan Luo Wang, The God of Hell, and the dead who must face his judgment in his demonic court.
