From San Jose, California, Brian Do has been the drummer for Ripped To Shreds since 2020. He has appeared on two full-length releases and a single in 2021. You may also know him from his work in Spinebreaker, which he has been in since 2016.
Brian’s Links:
https://rippedtoshredsdeathmetal.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/rippedtoshredsdeathmetal
https://www.facebook.com/rippedtoshredsband
Brian’s Gear:
Tama Imperialstar 10″, 12″ Rack Toms, 22″ Kick
DW 18” x 16” Floor Tom
Ludwig 14” x 5” Black Beauty Snare
Rude 16″ Crash/Ride
Rude 20″ Thin Crash
Paiste 2002 22″ Ride
K Custom Dark 14″ Hi-hats
Wuhan 18″ China
Pearl Double Pedal
Vic-Firth 5BN Sticks
RIPPED TO SHREDS
New Album ‘Sanshi’
Out Now via Relapse Records!
Order HERE
Video for Lead Single
“Perverting the Funeral Rites, Stripping for the Dead”
Out Now — Watch HERE
‘Sanshi’ Track List
1. Into the Court of Yanluowang
2. Force Fed
3. 燒冥紙 (Sacrificial Fire)
4. 孽鏡臺 (Visions of Sin, Mirror of Darkness)
5. Feast of the Deceased
6. Horrendous Corpse Resurrection
7. Living in Effigy
8. 冥婚 (Corpse Betrothal)
9. Cultivating Towards Ascension
10. Perverting the Funeral Rites, Stripping for the Dead
About Ripped To Shreds:
San Francisco Bay Area, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and vocalist Andrew Lee (Azath, Draghkar, Houkago Grind Time, et al.) spent his formative years woodshedding in his home studio, piecing together a Swedish-infused take on the grinding fury of Terrorizer mixed with the raw, plodding onslaught of early Bolt Thrower. From those years of tone and riff worship, RIPPED TO SHREDS was born.
Musically, Lee looked to the guitar work of Grind god Jesse Pintado and the more virtuosic, Dave Suzuki-inspired elements of the Death/Grind pantheon. Lyrically, he looked to represent his Chinese and Taiwanese heritage by telling tales of his people’s tempestuous and resilient history.
With the band’s first full-length, Mai Zang (Tomb, 2018), Lee broke new lyrical ground, bringing to light such trials, tragedies, and triumphs as the flooding of the Yellow River to stop the advance of Japanese troops in 1938 and the purge of communists by Nationalist forces during the Chinese Civil War.
These pieces of history are brought to life via the chaotic, metallic backdrop born of Lee’s obsessive musicianship and world-class production work, both of which have risen to new heights throughout three full-length albums. Mai Zang was followed closely by Luan (2020) and Jubian (2022), with Lee presenting Chinese history via the medium of Death Metal from the perspective of someone whose ancestors were actually there.
2024 sees the 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.
Sanshi’s lead single, “Perverting the Funeral Rites,” sees the quartet at their most fierce and focused in a song inspired by obscure funeral rites in Taiwan wherein exotic dancers perform lithe rituals for living and dead alike.
The album sees the band dig into a morbid fixation on death and the afterlife in traditional Chinese folklore. “Force Fed” delves into the legend of Meng Po’s “Elixir of Forgetfulness,” a potion which, when drunk by the dead, wipes their memories clean before they are reincarnated. Elsewhere, “Living In Effigy” was inspired by real-life tales of photographers traversing remote rural China, taking funeral portraits of the elderly who had died alone, their only living relatives far away in one of the country’s countless megalopolises.
Sanshi’s cover art comes courtesy of artist Guang Yang, Lee’s long-term collaborator, and depicts a scene of Yan Luo Wang, The God of Hell, and the dead who must face his judgment in his demonic court.
