If you spend a week away from the internet, you can virtually guarantee that upon return to digital civilization, you’ll find out that some well-known hardcore band has called it quits. That was my fate today as I (aggressively) scanned through the several hundred emails from last week, which included a note about RUINER deciding on an end-date this October. I gotta admit – I’m amazed they made it this far! RUINER truly captured the spirit and work-ethic of earlier eras in hardcore, illustrated by playing over 700 shows in just six years, and playing anywhere everywhere. But they always seemed like a band teetering on the brink of destruction, be it through personnel changes, van obstacles, or the general IEDs that get lobbed against bands that continue to take chances and never sit around waiting for things to be handed to them. Nothing they recorded after What Could Possibly Go Right? hit me the same way as that EP slapped me around. The rawness of the recording; the despair and ugliness in the vocals. RUINER in the beginning was urgent, unrestrained, and sounded like a band that didn’t give a fuck about anything other than their songs. They didn’t stray much from that during their run, and that’s why people cared.