The next album under examination is
A Wilhelm Scream's
"Ruiner". A Wilhelm Scream perform a melodic, intricate, often poppy style of punk rock complete with enough gang vocals and whoa-ohs to satisfy all types of punk fans. They're a hard band to pin down though. The glorious opener "The King Is Dead" sounds like an apolitical Propagandhi song, whereas "In Vino Veritas II" can hang with the catchiest of commercial pop-rock tunes.
That being said, not being able to figure the band out should not be mistaken for them being diverse. It's more a question of "how seriously should I be taking these guys?" When they moan about being "so f@#&ing bored" I can't help but shrug at their childishness whereas other times this immaturity can be a lot of fun such the random shouts of "F*CK!" in between repititions of "The king is dead!". And then they get a little more serious with "Me vs. Morrissey in the Pretentious Contest" where they drop odd one-liners like "Tell me a doll once came dead from above" followed by a bunch of possibly metaphoric bullsh*t.
In the end there will be a high correlation between what your expectations are and the amount of enjoyment you extract. Ignore its polish, the stupidity of half of it, and the lack of direction. Just sit back and sing along.
I give this one 3 Vans Slip-ons out of a possible 4
