I really want to know why this CD even exists in the first place? Ruiner's last album Prepare to Be Letdown is barely in its toddler stage and the 1917 Records EP What Could Possibly Go Right is just entering preschool. Is there really a need for re-releasing material that isn't even half a decade old? Are their super fans of Ruiner that just can't a score a copy of the band's split with Day of the Dead on eBay or at their local record store's used bin? Are there people out there with their bedroom walls plastered with show fliers and posters of Ruiner that need to hear the demo? Actually, in today's day and age - and especially in hardcore - there probably are and these odd strange creatures probably rushed to the record store to purchase I Heard These Dudes Were Assholes or they may have even pre-ordered it like the super fans they are. We live in weird times.
Me? I like Ruiner and even though I didn't exactly rush to the store to purchase I Heard These Dudes Were Assholes like those nut balls above, I do find Ruiner to be a good pissed off hardcore band. Ruiner's music teeters a fine line between speedy bursts of melodic energy and chaotic hammering. Almost every song in Ruiner's albeit short catalog always sounds like its on the brink of falling apart only to be held together with spit, prayers, and just enough gumption to make it through what's usually a minute and half song of brow beating, soul bearing, and heart shattering yell your throat raw hardcore.
Lyrics are one of this Maryland outfit's stronger points. Vocalist Rob Sullivan comes across as that one guy who no matter where he is and what he's doing he's always pissed off about something. His lyrics are the musical equivalent of being stuck behind that guy that keeps talking to himself and glaring at everyone else in the line at the bank. He's pissed off and you aren't exactly sure about what but you know he isn't happy. Sullivan delivers his lyrics with a violent vigor and ferocity of a man that's got nothing to lose and everyone deserves nothing less than a middle finger response. He spits out diatribes of "fuck you"s, relationships gone horribly wrong, and just dealing with a broken down van on tour. All the lyrics seemed to be penned on one hot miserable and anxiety filled night where nothing could possibly go right and didn't.
I Heard These Dudes Were Assholes is a somewhat useless compilation CD of everything Ruiner did before Prepare to be Letdown. If for some reason you need those tracks, well here you go. Enjoy. Actually if you've never heard this band, I Heard These Dudes Were Assholes is as good a starting place as any. I would recommend this band to anyone that thinks hardcore's best era is somewhere between Background Music and whatever Deathwish is releasing next week. Ruiner is a spazzy, frantic band whose had their share of broken hearts, destroyed dreams, and damn it all to hellisms that they are just going to scream about as they trash through fourteen tracks of modern hardcore at its most caustic. And honestly can you blame them? Sometimes you just write music that says "fuck you" to everyone you can't.
