GRAND MAGUS
Iron Will
(Rise Above)

ASVA
What You don't Know is Frontier
(Southern)

EMPIRE AURIGA
Auriga Dying
(Moribund)

MADE OUT OF BABIES
The Ruiner
(The End)

VOMIT
Still Rotting
(Lyderhorn)

LORDS OF BASTARD
S/T

(SL)

THE DOITS
Lost, Lonely & Vicious 

(Locomotive)

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If you already know what to expect from this New York band, then lift up your spirits. The Ruiner does all the band did before but better, more expertly and confidently. It truly is one of those records that sonically, you can tell has pretty broad horizons, but that once it finds its own sound it hones it and exploits it ‘till exhaustion. That’s not to say that Made Out of Babies could make another album that is similar sounding to The Ruiner and it would sound like rusty ideas already. Not at all. Stylewise, The Ruiner is a continuation of and not a departure at all, from previous outputs like Coward (Neurot, 2006) and Trophy (Neurot, 2005), where the band’s artsy post metal is dished out with admirable vigor.

Lucky them boys in the band. Sure, the music is great. Very expressive, shaded and lit where necessary. Melodic, jagged and effervescent when required, the songs float on their own. Totally laden with effects that don’t put too much make up on the organic delivery, The Ruiner packs well the post metal and the post hardcore into a blend that is crushing and all their own.

But the performance of the year medal should go to vocalist Julie Christmas, whose powerful, versatile and expressive vocal chords give so much away, the band would be stupid not to open up their sonic palette.   I mean, how much saliva can she hold? Just check out that closing song “How We Get Bigger”. Christmas goes the distance and then some. The lady doesn’t even breathe, spewing lines almost tirelessly and offering up her two most distinctive angles; that polite and caffeinated kinda talking/but kinda not deadpan and then off and on that truly enraged blown out woman on PCP thing she does so brilliantly well. Christmas is her own vocalist, but I’d venture to say there are shades here and there where she reminds of a more cooked up but yet as visceral Karyn Crisis. 

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