I first heard Cripper from Germany when they supported Overkill a short time ago. Their music is labelled thrash metal, but for me, it’s more of the 90’s style. Cripper take a similar stance to bands like Pissing Razors, 90’s Testament, Carnal Forge and a lot of Pantera (check out ‘Animal of Prey’). Female vocalist Britta Görtz has a real brutal delivery, similar to Arch Enemy’s temptress Angela Gossow.
Overall, there is a cool amount of groove and thrashy palm muting on guitars, its heavy, in fact very heavy, but in my mind I cannot really say this is thrash, but it’s pretty decent none the less. What Cripper miss out on is memorable choruses; their approach is much more in your face with a middle finger visible at every avenue. Thus, it doesn’t have any memorable facets to speak of although tracks like ‘Another Lesson In Pain’ do stick around in your mind for a short while due to the unrelenting brutal delivery derived from Pantera/Testament as I have name checked earlier.
I don’t hear any staying power in this album, it is one of those albums that are listenable, but I am not sure if I would volunteer my hearing to multiple listens out of individual choice. They are cool at what they do, but it is a little bit like turning the clock back to one of the most diabolical periods of general metal music history. That said, ‘Antagonist’ is laden with some wicked solos, heavy groove and overall it is a solid release, hence my rating, but lacks any definitive individuality.
