Band To Watch: Ripped To Shreds

Lee, who is American-born Chinese, has always insisted that his heritage and culture live at the forefront of Ripped To Shreds. Ripped To Shreds may not be as directly political as that essay was, but Lee does get to use the band to lead by example. Jubian is the first full-band album for Ripped To Shreds, which Lee originally conceived as a solo project. Where earlier Ripped To Shreds songs were written strictly to be recorded, Lee conceived Jubian for the live stage. Lee says "Race Traitor" is about "The experience of existing as a minority in a country where any action is seen as representative of their whole race," and his frustration with that experience bursts through in the song. Lee's playing has always tended toward forthright melodic expression, and his work outside of Ripped To Shreds has emphasized that even more in recent years. That intuition for following a song wherever it wants to go led Lee and his bandmates to write what is easily the best Ripped To Shreds album yet.