Swelling the Morgue

If the Reno metal band Violent Ruler was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles villain, who would it be? It certainly wouldn’t be Bebop or Rocksteady. Nor would it be Krang, though some of this tricky, technical music is plenty brainy. … That’s right, the Shredder! Because that’s what this music does—it shreds. Plus, with a name like Violent Ruler, you know they have to be the head honcho, the supervillain, not some mutant henchman.

Some animals eat roughage, Violent Ruler eats riffage, particularly old-school thrash metal riffage. Everything sounds great on the record, including the roaring, barking vocals—though I’d advise against reading along with the lyric sheet; these vocals are better heard than understood. There’s a lot of cleanly executed, hard-rocking musicianship, including some excellent tickle-the-pig-until-he-squeals guitar solos. This is some hesh shit, and discriminating metalheads will find themselves handbangin’ along in no time.