Reviews

Sophomore albums. They define bands. They decide whether or not that debut was just beginners’ luck or the start of something really great. The sophomore album can make you or break you. “Ruiner” is the follow up the surprise hit, “Mute Print,” and while it’s very similar to that release, it is more fine tuned and musically improved, really bringing out the best that contemporary punk rock has to offer. 
 
“The King Is Dead,” is what immediately made me fall in love with this album. After “Mute Print,” there must have been so many people expecting so much out of this release, and from what I hear out of these fourteen tracks, you will not be let down. Some notable tracks include “When I Was Alive: Walden III,” a direct allusion to the essay by Henry David Thoreau, featuring lyrics “How’d I get so fucking loveable/Take my Midas shit-powers to give out/Apologize to who I touch/I could have ruined you too/But I was beaten to the punch/Hug what?/Why should I care who you go fuck?”  Another real standout track is “Me Vs. Morissey In The Pretentiousness Contest (The Ladder Match),” featuring words like “Our Vanity’s A Sickness/There’s a world outside prescribed/And I won’t live in it.”
 
My absolute favorite is “Less Bright Eyes, More Deicide,” which is actually the inspiration behind the artwork for the album, which tells a story throughout the booklet depicting a young man picking up a brick, throwing it into a birds’ nest, killing the baby birds and then being attacked and killed by the larger birds. The lyrics that go with it are “Take the honest side/A gentleman would call it slanderous/It takes a man to cry/But I just put a brick through every bird’s nest. Take me out to the parking lot/Flattery is dead, romance is next/You never wanted to touch me while I was worthless/Get it while I’m sick with this/White knuckle grip on the world?/Well, I’m losing it.”
 
What makes A Wilhelm Scream stand out so much is a cross between the gritty, raw, punk rock vocals of Nuno Pereira and some real aggressive, metal guitar riffs followed up by occasional three part harmonies. None of their songs are bubbly and packaged right up for radio, they’re all very much unique in their own way. This is a terrific band, and I’m already excited to see what they’ll deliver for a third album. “Ruiner” will quickly become one of your favorite albums of 2005, for sure.