Rippikoulu

Rippikoulu is a Finnish death metal band from Valkeakoski, Finland.

They began their musical endeavours back in the late eighties, and like so many of their contemporaries, evolved from primitive punk noise to death metal. However, while many bands played death metal with groovy riffing and overall headbanging attitude, Rippikoulu's choice of style was darker. Their downtuned metal is bleak and nearly unbearably heavy in its execution, dark and soul-searching in its themes, intertwining faster bursts of chaos with slow, doomy passages.

When the band's guitarist Marko Henriksson died in 1995, Rippikoulu was on hold for two years. Comeback attempts were made later, but it wasn't the same without Marko and therefore they ultimately split up and remained inactive until 2014.

"Rippikoulu" is Finnish for "confirmation class".