Clit Ripper, In Front Of The Kids (Torn to Pieces)

[May 23rd, 2007] [THRASH] The opening lead-guitar riff to "Rip Your Clit and Watch You Die"—the first song on Clit Ripper's In Front of the Kids—sounds like the sped-up, orchestral soundtrack to a war movie. Four successive notes increase in pitch and intensity until they simulate waves of panic. It's memorable and dramatic (a real accomplishment at 100 mph), and it instantly introduces the mode sustained throughout the album.

See, despite whatever cringing the name inspires, Clit Ripper is a talented band. Lead guitarist Ian Kashani isn't always totally on—he gets lost in a sort of off-time "Flight of the Bumblebee" stint later on in "Rip"—but In Front of the Kids, the band's recent EP, is peppered with his frantic finger tapping, which makes such diversions seem suitably over the top. Likewise, bassist/vocalist Gory Jory's indecipherable screams—which (upon lyric-sheet inspection) depict such violent acts as severing cocks and choking on them—seem appropriate amid the four-piece's thrash-metal.

The songs are supposedly inspired by actual serial killers, but the lyrics are generic for the most part. And sometimes such nondescript words are Clit Ripper's downfall: "Execute Everyone," for example—a good track thanks to Mike Hell's primitive but appropriate snare-to-tom-roll metal beat­—could have been great with a different title. As it stands, the only lyrics are the title, but Kashani claims the song is specifically about Pedro Alonso López—the worst serial killer in history. Listening to the song's calm, deliberate, almost beautiful lead over guitarist Frankie Wrath's stately rhythm guitar with the thought of someone who killed over 100 little girls on the brain is a powerful experience. You wouldn't have it, however, unless the song was named after (or at least mentioned) López. The clarity of the music and simplicity of the lyrics—combined with the song's abrupt, 30-second, burst-of-rage conclusion—aptly mirror what one imagines López's murders must have been like: intense, but momentary and ultimately unsatisfying.

"Execute Everyone" is daring, and something of a hidden masterpiece in that it can't speak for itself. If only Clit Ripper considered its listeners as much as its subjects, it could easily become one of the most striking voices in local metal.