The Ruiner - The Ruiner flac album

To me, an album release has some core objectives in approximately this order of importance 1) solid music 2) high quality audio via engineering, mixing, sequencing and a mastering approach that matches the delivery medium 3) where it's a physical release - the package presentation (including the art throughout the release). This album already checked off on the absolutely rock (geddit!?) solid collection of tracks, in the limited tracks released on bandcamp in early 2016, and the bandcamp/desert highways CD release some time later. This review is not so much about the audio which stands on its own. Happily The Ruiner followed these earlier releases up with this vinyl edition (plus two other versions - the Deluxe and Standard versions) and the LP is absolutely complemented by appropriate mastering with no apparent compromises in audio quality. Further, this format is so appropriate for The Ruiner's somewhat-harder-than-usual-doom...Presentation is rarely overlooked entirely - most artists put plenty of effort into their artwork - and this album is no exception with - starting at the inside - a thematic vinyl colour choice (cold hard steel), a totally rawk! live photo poster insert, and a great album art design front and rear. Zooming out to the next layer of presentation however - and where this release starts to stand head and shoulders above the majority - is the unique 'full metal jacket', constructed with perhaps 1mm plasma cut welded and ground sheet steel which bucks the temptation to (literally) remove every rough edge. This outer album cover will make you smile every time, with the album and cover combined weight, and with its tendency to make your hands dirty with rust (again, they resisted the temptation to paint the steel with a clear lacquer). Zoom out one last time to the outer layer of presentation, and you'll once more be impressed as I'm hard-pressed to find an example of an artist taking a leaf out of technology manufacturers playbook, by putting loads of thought into how they wrap their product. You can see the packaging image here on Discogs, but in summary The Ruiner have taken the time to compose a product health warning and liability waiver to reinforce just how HARD this release is. I'll tell you this for free, I'm keeping my record in this outer packaging because it will absolutely ensure that from the moment of picking the record up to well after I've wrapped it up and put it away, this album will make me smile.