10 Disturbing Songs Referencing the Rostov Ripper | Playlist 🎧

1. Nightmare at Hanging Rock, “Andrei Chikatilo”

💿 Serial Killers • 🏷 Time Travel Records / NAHR Music • 📅 2006 

There’s no better way to kick things off on 🎧 DISTURBING SONGS REFERENCING THE ROSTOV RIPPER than with the raw, punk number, 🎵 “Andrei Chikatilo.” This up-tempo joint arrives courtesy of 🎙 Nightmare at Hanging Rock, who made an entire album devoted to serial killers in 2006.  Guess what the name of that album was? If you guessed 💿 Serial Killers, you’d be correct!

“He will bite off your nipple and slice off your nose / Gauge out your eyes and throw away your toes…” GROSS, Nightmare at Hanging Rock, gross! Even grosser for The Rostov Ripper himself in real life, who was definitely ‘the spawn of Satan’ 👿. Lyrically, “Andrei Chikatilo,” just like the serial killer himself, gets worse: “He will eat your genitalia and rip your torso open.” Ouch! Like most punk, Nightmare at Hanging Rock keep their soundtrack to Mr. Chikatilo short at just over two minutes.  ‘Sweet’ it definitely isn’t! 👿

2. Slayer, “Psychopathy Red”

💿 World Planted Blood • 🏷 American Recordings • 📅 2009

“Systematic death / A physical fear / Psychopathy red / After death gratification.” Hmm. Andrei Chikatilo was “a former schoolteacher who murdered more than 50 young people in the Soviet Union.” 🎙 Slayer addresses the repugnant creeper on 🎵 “Psychopathy Red” which appears on their 2009 album, 💿 World Pained Blood. Fittingly, though disturbingly, the lyrics are purely devilish.  If the aforementioned lyrics were exhibit A, well, exhibit B is far worse and more graphic. 

“Perversion
Slow death agonizing
Stab around the eyes
Flow of blood
Warm taste brings me pleasure
Eclipsing all reason
Pushing sperm
In her imitation
Painful act in vain
Organs cooked, bled out potency
Now I am complete.”

Read about Chikatilo, and you’ll see that he experienced an incredibly rough life. That said, that’s no excuse for his actions, which were honestly more gruesome than Slayer could even capture musically.

3. Church of Misery, “Red Ripper Blues (Andrei Chikatilo)”

💿 The Second Coming • 🏷 Rise Above • 📅 2004 

“The Red Ripper” was one of the nicknames for serial killer Andrei Chikatilo.  Japanese death metal collective, 🎙 Church of Misery, renowned for their infernal soundtracks to the scum of society, used that nickname as the title of a song about him.  🎵 “Red Ripper Blues” hence, appears as the third track on their 2004 album, 💿 The Second Coming.  Notably, “Red Ripper Blues” finds itself sandwiched between a heaping dose of 🎵 “Soul Discharge” and 🎵 “Filth Bitch Boogie”, which is about 🔪 Aileen Wuornos, FYI.

Given the hellishness of Andrei Chikatilo, it should come as no surprise that “Red Ripper Blues” runs long – seven minutes long in fact! Fittingly, the guitars (🎙 Takenori Hoshi) roar, and are indeed bluesy.  An active bass line (🎙 Tatsu Mikami) and heavy-handed drums (🎙 Junji Narita) anchor this most disturbed, bluesy metal joint down, with the aggressive, raw vocals of 🎙 Hideki Fukasawa serving as the cherry on top.  Written/transcribed lyrics are hard to come by on “Red Ripper Blues,” but the music and the attitude exhibited by Hideki Fukasawa speaks for itself, and of course, the Rostov Ripper.

4. Impious, “Rostov Ripper”

💿 Death Domination • 🏷 Metal Blade • 📅 2009 

“The great Union Red, 1936 / Killer born while brave men at war / Grim reality – feast of the human flesh.” Yikes!  Just in case you couldn’t already gather it, metal is the perfect musical genre to cover some truly deplorable, unsettling subject matter. If you just read some of the song title from 🎙 Impious’ 2009 album, 💿 Death Domination, you’ll see what I’m talking about.  🎵 “Abomination Glorified” commences the album.  Later, there’s a 🎵 “Hate Killing Project”.  Concluding Death Domination is the 🎵 “Irreligious State of War”.  The point? This is very much a metal album and 🎵 “Rostov Ripper” fits the bill without a hitch as unlucky track number seven.

Like the preceding records on this dark list, the music provides a perfect soundtrack for this monstrous individual.  “Rostov Ripper” is loud as hell, with its Mephistophelean, jagged guitars, pummeling drums, and often, indecipherable, unclean vocals.  Unclean vocals for one of the worst serial killers of all time? Yes please. We do have lyrics (yay!), which superbly tell Mr. Chikatilo’s story in outlandish fashion:

“Evil spawned, by years of frustration
The anger within turns into madness and wrath
The educated, the brilliant, the genius
Impotent swine
Molesting he weak
Forced pleasure with knife.”

It would be a fair assessment to call that shit disturbing! Of course, it only gets worse:

“Sex-crazed killer is striking again
Luring victims into the woods
The blade in hand, let the slashing begin
Stabbing and biting, excitement at peak.”

5. Black Russians, “Rostov Ripper”

💿 Death by Communism • 🏷 Black Russians • 📅 2019

“Rostov, Rostov, Rostov Ripper, yeah!” On Facebook, 🎙 Black Russians assert in their ‘about’ section they want to “Teach children to worship Stalin.” Charming to say the least.  Fittingly, the rock collective’s 2019 album is entitled 💿 Death by Communism, featuring numerous Soviet references.  One of the most unfortunate, however is 🎵 “Rostov Ripper,” which appears as the second track.

Despite how dark the story of Andrei Chikatilo tends to be, you would necessarily think so listening to “Rostov Ripper.” No, Black Russians don’t paint the ripper as a hero or absolve him (“Worship me as your personal Christ / And I have decided you die”), but the music is up-tempo and set in a major key.  This is punk through and through, providing quite the contradiction to the disturbing nature of who they soundtrack. Black Russians don’t draw things out, giving us two-and-a-quarter-minutes of this awful man.

6. Chaos Synopsis, “Rostov Ripper”

💿 Art of Killing • 🏷 Chaos Synopsis • 📅 2013

“Alive or DEAD, he does not feel / The thirst grows, the hungry certainly KILLS / Holodomor, affecting minds / And consequences would come just with time!” So, 🎙 Black Russians were musically optimistic with their take on the Rostov Ripper.  In the hands of 🎙 Chaos Synopsis, pardon my French but frankly, they aren’t fuckin’ around with major keys. 🎵 “Rostov Ripper” is angular, in-your-face, and unapologetic from start to finish. Rock on!

Examine any of the lyrics, and like so many of the songs on this list, Chaos Synopsis biographize Andrei Chikatilo.  Of course, with the gift that is metal, the sensationalism is only amplified.  Still, when you consider the low life that is the subject, are any of these bands properly capturing the full extent of his sins? Still, Chaos Synopsis do a hell of a job painting a deranged portrait:

“The knife goes in and out
Simulating penetration
The power over victim
Stimulate ejaculation.”

In the aforementioned passage, the band touches upon (bad choice of words) Chikatilo’s erectile issues. I’ll leave it at that, however the book, 📚 The Last Book on the Left, written by ✍ Ben Kissel, Marcus Parks, and Henry Zebrowski, and illustrated by Tom Neely, covers Chikatilo and his sexual issues very well.  There is no shortage of intriguing moments:

“Rostov RIPPER
Kulak KILLER
Mad Beast took their eyes.”

7. Blood Tsunami, “The Butcher of Rostov”

💿 For Faen • 🏷 Indie Recordings • 📅 2013 

Yet another nickname for Andrei Chikatilo is the Butcher of Rostov. Norwegian thrash metal band 🎙 Blood Tsunami continue on with the disturbing soundtrack as 🎵 “Butcher of Rostov” appears on their 2013 album, 💿 For Faen.  As is the case with many of the bands and musician that grace this list, the album has no shortage of risqué, unapologetic songs: 🎵 “The Rape of Nanking”, 🎵 “Grave Desecrator”, and yet another song about a terrible serial killer, 🎵“B.T.K.”. But, for our purposes, we only focus on our butcher, who is more than enough to handle for one list.

Safe to say, “Butcher of Rostov” definitely sets the tone for For Faen – understatement.  Ample rhythmic guitar lines, heavy drums, anchoring bass – it’s ear-catching for sure.  That’s all before those vocals enter the mix on this four-minute plus joint.  The vocals lack any semblance of finesse, and we’d expect no less.  Like Chaos Synopsis, Blood Tsunami ensures they reference the sexual aspect of the murders:

“Sex equaled death
To this murderous pedophile
In order to ejaculate
He had to stab a child
... Sexually aroused by death
Stabbing ferociously
Hacking to pieces, shredding flesh.”

Yikes, yikes, yikes! 

8. Step in Blood, “The Red Ripper”

🎵 Rusted [Single] • 🏷 PTM Entertainment • 📅 2020 

The creepy, enigmatic introduction of 🎵 “The Red Ripper” definitely sets up the hellishness to come.  After the enigmatic phase has passed, the dynamics increase, with aggressive, in-your-face, raucous guitars leading the charge. There are also some badass, rad bass parts. 🎙 Step in Blood definitely take their time on “The Red Ripper,” which runs north of seven minutes in duration.  Understandable, given the fact that Andrei Chikatilo has quite the infamous record.

Like their colleagues, Step in Blood make it explicitly clear how despicable Mr. Chikatilo was.

“Cutting their lips off and biting
Nipples off women’s breasts
You ripped out their genitalia
Enjoy their eternal rest.”

Wow. We also get a reference to that 🎵 “Psychopathy Red” that 🎙 Slayer referred to earlier:

“Atrocity over the victims
You wanted their blood to be shed
Their anguish that was your rapture
Psychopathy Red
Their pain and your ecstasy merging
The number of fifty-three
That's how you will be remembered
Killer from The Forest Strip.”

9. Victoria Borodinova, “Andrei Chikatilo”

💿 Famous • 🏷 Multiza Distribution • 📅 2018

More often than not, I allow lyrics to drive the meat of these true crime-based playlists. Why? Well, more often than not, the artists and bands base their lyrics directly on the story of cult leaders, mass murderers, and serial killers.  But, honestly, an instrumental record can have a similar effect in capturing the horrors of a totally delusional, deranged-minded person.

Dance/Electronic musician🎙 Victoria Borodinova paints a must-hear, instrumental about the Red Ripper on 🎵 “Andrei Chikatilo.”  Essentially, the coarse sounds, jagged and percussive in nature, do all of the talking.  There are no lyrics needed!  The synths and programming are wild AF, filled with the tension of the heinous acts committed by an absolute scumbag. This ear catching joint should definitely appear in a sequence about any film made about Chikatilo, if anyone would ever dare to do so!

10. M.D.K., “Andrei Chikatilo – The Red Ripper”

💿 Into the Pussymorgue • 🏷 Bizarre Leprous Productions • 📅 2013

Ah, we close out this hellish affair with Brazilian metal band, 🎙 M.D.K.  The provide the cap – the coda – to the Rostov Ripper.  There are lyrics, but you could argue that the music vibe alone of 🎵 “Andrei Chikatilo – The Red Ripper” gets the job done. Providing some additional context, the album the song hails from is called 💿 Into the Pussymorgue… let that sink in.  Anyways, even with the Portuguese song titles, some you have to do very little translation to see that M.D.K. are, um, totally unapologetic.  A prime example: 🎵 “Fantasias Sexuasis Sadicas”.  It shouldn’t take long to decipher that one.

Running merely two minutes and change, “Andrei Chikatilo – The Red Ripper” is sure to freak you out from the jump with its depiction of murder from the jump.  That’s before M.D.K. launch into a music rampage that I’m pretty sure everyone should probably repent after listening to it.  If you indulge and ask the blunt question, ‘exactly WTF is going on,’ I can’t blame you.  Just keep in mind, they are making a musical soundtrack to the Rostov Ripper, who gave absolutely no ****.