AMG Review of Ruiner

Eduardo Rivadavia
All Music Guide

Brooklyn, NY's Made Out of Babies swapped one forward-thinking label (Neurot Recordings) for another (The End) prior to unleashing their third album, The Ruiner -- as though their questing pursuit of sounds unknown needed any further encouragement. Yet The Ruiner doesn't exactly set about reinventing the wheel where the quartet's post-metal/noise-rock mutation is concerned (most would agree it's distinctive enough as is), but rather rounds out its disparate qualities into some of the most potently focused tracks of the group's career. This is no mean feat given the extensive creative ground covered, but vocalist Julie Christmas' entertainingly schizophrenic, "what'll she sound like next?" versatility, and frankly stupefying lyrics, are sure to keep listeners riveted (and, yes, confused) once again -- no matter how seamlessly they are buttressed by the churning metallic vortices (see "Cooker," "Grimace," and "Pew") and apposite doomier tempos wed to lighter atmospherics ("The Major," "Buffalo," "Stranger") juggled by able instrumentalists Brendan "Bunny" Tobin (guitar), Eric Cooper (bass), and Matthew Egan (drums). When all is screeched and done, only terminal cynics who insist on viewing Christmas and her cohorts as Jarboe-fronting-Isis-lite will likely find cause to complain, because few bands can match Made Out of Babies when it comes to pushing musical boundaries toward ever-intriguing and unpredictable new places.