Ruiner‘s newest Long Player may have quite a generic title, but it is very much a multi-facetted album. It’s got levels to it. As per usual, the 10 tracks on offer pass in the blink of an eye, although it’s got new levels of vitriol and malice, even by Ruiner‘s high standards. No coincidence that they have announced this week that they are hanging up their boots very soon after two thirds of a decade. I figured it was well worth giving this album a few words in the band’s dying honour.
Hell is Empty has all the trademarks of Ruiner – Brutality mixed with a real sense of dynamics – but what makes me suggest that this album is the band’s pinnacle is the perfection of the art of doom sounding hardcore; the Ruiner ‘drone‘. The even-more-generically titled double track ‘part 1 and part 2’ is the epitome of what this band are about. A slow, bass led start, breaking in to a sludgy, memorable and downright melancholic riff, into comeback kid style octaves and vocals spat out like they were gospel.
Standout track ‘Convenient Gods’ offers the mantra that would have defined a scene 5 years ago at the height of emoidism. ‘You need you more than I need you. I wish that was true, I wish that was true’. This line alone reminds you that for all of Ruiner‘s ability to be a breath of fresh air in the hardcore scene, they were also not pretentious. This is the finest hour of a fine band. RIP Ruiner.
Mike