Ruiner

Personnel: Trevor Reilly (vocals, guitar); Nuno Pereira, Jonathan Teves, Bill Stevenson (vocals); Christopher Levesque (guitar); Nicholas Pasquale Angelini (drums).
Audio Mixers: Jason Livermore; Bill Stevenson.
Illustrator: Robert Dobi.
With Ruiner, Boston's A Wilhelm Scream have boldly moved beyond the bulk of bands littering the contemporary punk rock landscape. Boasting real songs -- the kind that are propelled by emotion, thought, opinion, and aggression -- singer Nuno Pereira and guitarist Trevor Riley pack a wallop into songs like the incendiary "The King Is Dead" and the destructive-minded, provocative "Less Bright Eyes, More Deicide." The latter -- which finds the song's subject throwing a brick into a bird's nest, killing baby birds, and then being attacked and killed by larger birds -- is a forceful, metallic-punk tale of retribution, replete with Pereira's raw, gritty delivery. If the song titles like "Me vs. Morissey in the Pretentiousness Contest (The Ladder Match)" and their respective lyrics seem ostentatious on paper, the band's drive ("Congratulations") and emotional depth ("In Vino Veritas II") validate Ruiner. Seamless, essential punk rock is rare in 2005, but A Wilhelm Scream is making believers out of naysayers. ~ John D. Luerssen