Band : Ruiner
Album title : I Heard These Dudes Are Assholes
Label : Bridge Nine
Distributor : Hardlife Promotion - Suburban
Release date : 30/09/2008
Release : (Compilation) CD

Since Baltimore based Hardcore/ Punk Rock quintet Ruiner has been so kind as to put a somewhat comprehensive biography on their MySpace page, I can dispense with having to look for all the info through several sources and assemble it for you, but here's the most important fact anyway:

Formed late Summer 2004, Ruiner played its first shows in October, at the same time releasing a 3-track demo. May 2005 saw the release of the 6-track 7-inch EP What Could Possibly Go Right? through the Firestarter and Grave Mistake imprints. That winter a split 7-inch EP with Portuguese band Day Of The Dead (containing 2 songs by Ruiner) was issued through German label Vendetta Records. Around the same time 1917 Records (with whom the band had signed that Summer) re-issued the WCPGR? EP on CD with two bonus tracks. Ruiner starts recording it's debut full-length Prepare To Be Let Down inJanuary2007, but their label falls through. By March however, the label had signed to Bridge Nine. Around the same time a re-issue of the split EP with Day Of The Dead occured through the Burn Bridges imprint. The debut "full-length" was released Statewize in June (early July in  Europe, review by collegue Guido Claes posted on 23/09/2007).
Since the album's release, the guys (after several changes the line-up stabilized with singer Rob Sullivan guitarists Danny Porter & Dustin Thornton, bassist Stephen Smeal, and drummer Joey Edwards) have been on a relentless touring schedule (details see myspace.com/ruiner) and have therefore had only little time to write new songs (they've worked on sóme, though), let alone had the time to jump into a studio to record a batch of new songs! What with the touring not ending really soon (November dates for Australia are already posted), the boys and the people at Bridge Nine felt it would be a good idea to re-issue the band's old stuff. This way, all the new fans the band made with last year's touring are enabled to actually get all that since long sold-out material!

So, there it is (in order of appearance): all 8 tracks off the What Could Possibly Go Right, and the two songs off the split-EP with Day Of The Dead, enhanced with the 2004 Still Smiling demo (3 demo versions of songs also appearing on the WCPGR? EP) and a demo version of "The Lives We Fear" (a song later re-recorded for the Prepare To Be Let Down album).

Musically, the guys play a style which was rather popular in the Boston area circa mid '80s: fast-paced and powerful yet melodic Punk Rock with Hardcore intensities, and a singer whom shouts/ screams his lyrics in a way to be understandable. To check out the band's music, there's 3 ways to go...1°: for 30-second samples of the band's complete catalogue, surf to last.fm/music/Ruiner (and find also 5 live videos, all for songs off the compilation!)...2°: purevolume.com/ruiner (for two full-length songs off the compilation)...3°: myspace.com/ruiner
(for two other songs off the compilation & two off the Prepare To Be Let Down album, although one's "The Lives We Fear").

Nice stuff, and soó remeniscent of that good ol' time I cannot help but lóve this band (after all, a lot of what we like and love has to do with our personal perceptions of the things we come across, right?). As this IS a compilation, I'm not gonna rate it (website policy), but give us a couple more listening sessions and you'll find I Heard These Dudes Are Assholes in my year-lists anyway!

Tony.