Review of the Album "Open Your Third Ear" by Florida Thrash Metal Band Riptorn

Riptorn is a thrash metal band from Tampa, Florida that musically didn’t really appeal to me at the first listen but because it is super heavy I decided to check these guys out. Their style is brutal thrash metal with a touch of Dark Tranquillity style vocals and there is some hardcore shouting in the mix as well. You’d think that the band would use the name Rip Torn and just make it two words but that’s just one of those odd occurrences in the history of music.

The album we are reviewing here is the one called Open Your Third Ear and it came out in 2018. “I’m Practicing” is a very heavy song about doing the best you can at what you are trying to master as practice does make perfect usually but the incessant “I’m Practicing” really makes this song a less than stellar attempt at heavy thrash metal.

It is obvious that we should not overexert ourselves in life when we are trying to perfect or master anything.

Bowl Patrol has some chunky, rough, intense riffing which is a good try by these American guys to try and sound unique among these newer US thrash metal bands. That’s admirable but they still aren’t on the level of European thrash metal bands. But as usual, I’ve always been the kind of person to give albums a chance and sometimes it turns out that an album really grows on me and this one may grow on you musically as well.

Drink a Fifth (Plead the Fifth) is a sort of humorous attempt by the band to try and enjoy the drinking and partying lifestyle but we have seen the very negative effects of too much alcohol. The album’s cover depicts a monster of some sort sitting next to a crater that is releasing fumes into the atmosphere as the third ear in a triangle is present.

The song High Speed DSL features a drum solo and this does not always happen with a thrash metal band. The song also has a melodic mix of lead guitar and riffing similar to the band Hexen but this part is probably better constructed. ‘We Want More” is a cheesy attempt at being hardcore and this one doesn’t quite work out well enough for my standards as the shouting is a bit much. “Mr. Mystery Man” is a song about someone that nobody really knows what he does or where he is from. The Dark Tranquillity style vocals resurface again in this song and I know that Riptorn tries to be creative but they just haven’t done enough to get into the elite category of bands. “New Song Idea” is just a short skit kind of song as some guitar is being played and there is a disagreement where there is talk of who is the next member to be fired from the band.

Unfortunately though, Open Your Third Ear is a mixed bag musically and there is some decent to good songwriting but the skit near the end of this album really drops the score for this album down. This album is not all bad however. Drink a Fifth starts out with a good modern thrash metal riff. As usual, those of you that are partying please do so responsibly. The middle of the song is slower influenced Judas Priest style (think about 2001’s Demolition) and even that album will be getting to the point where it will be considered old.

“The Grip” features some vocals reminiscent of the hardcore punk crossover band Suicidal Tendencies from way back in the day but it does not do enough to really excite me or impress me. It still isn’t impressive enough either to be of a high average kind of effort.