Formed in the summer 2003 by Paganizer main man and guitarist Rogga Johansson along with former Paganizer guitarist Andreas Karlsson and the all present multi-musician Dan Swanö. Ribspreader is now ready with their debut Bolted to the Cross, a debut that totally reeks of old school death metal.

You'll find no grind parts, double bass drums or any kind of technical gabble here. Ribspreader has kept the music fairly simple, playing their interpretation of primitive old school death metal like it was played in the late eighties and early nineties by bands like Death, Autopsy and Massacre, just to name a few. But Bolted to the Cross actually seem to bear more than a few resemblances with fellow Swedish old school death metallers Bloodbath in which Dan Swanö also is deeply involved. Dan has also contributed with a few leads here and there which really helps to pull the music in a positive direction but at the same time it also makes it sound very Bloodbath-like. But this shouldn't be thought of as being a negative thing 'cause it isn't. Rogga's vocals also sound very close to those of former Bloodbath singer Mikael Åkerfeldt and that's just another thing out of many that keep bringing the aforementioned Bloodbath to mind.

Logically there's absolutely nothing innovative or revolutionary about Bolted to the Cross but it's a damn fine piece of old school death metal that easily can fill out the gab while we wait on the new Bloodbath album. And as Rogga rightfully stated: "There is still those of us that are devoted to the simple straight forward metal that was mostly churned out in the late eighties and the early to mid nineties" - I can only second that statement. I for one am definitely looking forward to the next Ribspreader album.