UMUR
"Dreaming With the Dead" is the debut full-length studio album by US, New Jersey based death metal act Ripping Corpse. The album was released through Maze Records (released in Europe through Under One Flag) in June 1991. Ripping Corpse only released "Dreaming With the Dead" while active, but they actually recorded a second full-length studio album, which was never released, before they finally disbanded. Guitarist Erik Rutan went on to join Morbid Angel and later founded Hate Eternal, but is also quite a prolific producer along side his musician career. Lead vocalist Scott Ruth, guitarist Shaune Kelley and drummer Brandon Thomas formed Dim Mak, so while Ripping Corpse were a very shortlived act, and never achived any noteworthy success in their time together, the band did spawn a couple of prolific extreme metal careers.
The music on "Dreaming With the Dead" is a rather unconventional type of death metal. The tracks feature many tempo changes and are technically well played, but it´s lead vocalist Scott Ruth that stands out from the growling vocalist crowd and thereby defines Ripping Corpse unique sound. He is a very aggressive vocalist and his semi-growling delivery is definitely not a typical growling vocal style. At times his vocal style leans a bit more towards a brutal thrash metal vocal style than a death metal ditto.
"Dreaming With the Dead" features 12 tracks and a full playing time of 34:26. The material on the album are generally energetic, aggressive, and well played. It´s not all tracks that are equally interesting and some aren´t that memorable, but there are some killer material on the album, featuring quite adventurous death metal riffing and of course Scott Ruth´s distinct sounding vocals.
The sound production is decent, but lacks some power and punch, and during the faster paced parts it´s not always possible to hear what´s being played. Despite that and other minor issues, "Dreaming With the Dead" is still a pretty great death metal release by Ripping Corpse and if you´re searching for something unique sounding look no further. a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.