“You’re only as good as your most recent material, and that kinda scares me,” confesses the main songwriter. “It scares the hell outta me, the thought of writing a shitty record, so it’s not gonna happen. Our next record is gonna be fuckin’ the best thing we’ve ever done. And that’s how it’s always gonna be until this band fuckin’ dies.” Okay, perhaps this sentiment may make Reilly seem a little arrogant himself, but when understanding where he’s coming from, that he’s just so bent on making the best records possible, doing himself one step better on each release, it turns out to be a venerable proclamation. “I wanna keep pushing us, pushing our songs, taking it to the limit. I wanna make the records crazier and faster and more gnarly, ‘cause that’s what I would expect from my favorite bands - for them to…kill themselves trying to make the most kick-ass songs. So that’s what we’re gonna do.”
That they did on their most recent album, ‘Ruiner’, 14 tracks of rapid, intense, and edgy punk that shows them playing anything but, as Reilly puts it, “ball-less, vapid bullshit.” You know, the wussy, safe stuff of which there’s been an ungodly outpouring as of late… And, to be totally honest, Yours Truly hadn’t heard this band before checking out ‘Ruiner,’ and, turns out, had (foolishly) thought they were just one in the ever-growing, interchangeable emo/“pop-punk”/rock/whatever-you-call-it brigade. So, obviously (from the aforementioned abridged description of AWS), this critic was pleased with what came out of the speakers.
You can actually hear their ’90s punk influence – basically the monstrous Epitaph/Fat Wreck bands that breathed life into the genre (think Bad Religion, Pennywise, Face to Face, Lagwagon, NOFX, Strung Out, et al) – something not found too often these days. Bands like Bad Religion and Face to Face helped Reilly learn the art of harmonizing, and Propagandhi was/is one of AWS’ favorite bands. Still, the songwriter admits Iron Maiden also inspired his guitar work.
In any case, some major highlights on ‘Ruiner’ are the aggressive, yet melodic “Killing It”; the darker but still pounding “The Soft Sell”; the driving “God Loves a Liar”; the more pensive- and somewhat somber-sounding, powerful finale “Cancer Dream”; and the out-of-control-good ripper “The Kids Can Eat a Bag of Dicks”. Yeah, as can be seen, they’ve got some cool titles for their compositions, like “Less Bright Eyes, More Deicide” and the wonderful “Me Vs. Morrissey in the Pretentiousness Contest (The Ladder Match)” (yes, yes, it’s a mouthful, but awesome just the same – and perhaps even more so, as the length adds to its own grandiosity, shall we say).
Anyway, because of his almost draconian obsession with perfection, it’s an understatement to say Reilly felt pressure when penning ‘Ruiner’. After all, the guy loved AWS’ previous LP, ‘Mute Print’, AND he’d already set himself up for a fall by heralding the greatness of the next album DURING interviews for ‘Mute Print’, by asserting, “Just wait till the next one. It’s gonna blow [this one] away.”
And now, as mentioned earlier, he’s boasting the same way about the subsequent batch of tunes, which are essentially only “ideas” at present, for the band are too busy touring for him to record. Following their jaunt with Pennywise, October sees AWS touring with Strung Out and later Alexisonfire, and in January 2006, hitting Europe with Lagwagon – the lads’ first trek across the pond. Uh, methinks that might just be a bit fun…
And live, these guys pack a punch. Reilly reminisces about the CMJ show they played at Tribeca in NYC in September, saying after their set, “I immediately just walked offstage with my guitar, just went over to the bathroom and puked my brains out all over the bathroom just because I was screaming my balls off and shit onstage.” Yeah, they’re so into it, it literally makes ‘em puke. Now, there’s no guarantee you’ll viddy the by-product of Reilly’s (or any other band members’, for that matter) innards, but rest assured they “leave it all out there onstage” (only figuratively – most of the time, hopefully) and “love playing the fast shit,” so that’s what you’ll get. “We do what we like, not what’s hip and cool right now and is on the fuckin’ Main Stage at Warped Tour,” proclaims the guitarist. “I could give two shits about that. And the true fans of our band could give a shit either,” he adds. “They want fast anthems again, which there aren’t a helluva lot these days. But I have a feeling in the coming year it’s gonna come back, and it’s gonna come back in a big way. I’m pretty excited to be a part of it.”
Well, we can only hope that if this premonition comes to pass, the genre doesn’t become flooded with poseurs just jumping on the bandwagon because it’s the cool thing to play – you’ve seen it: the ones who played ska in ’97, ’98, then went to screamo or metalcore… But, us connoisseurs can usually decipher the “real deal” from those just posturing and who don’t have their hearts in it.
And if punk doesn’t break again? Well, AWS will still be here. They’re in it for the long term. As Reilly says, “As long as we’re having a fun time, we’re gonna keep doing it. It doesn’t have anything to do with how many kids come after the show and spend 17 dollars on merch. It’s not about the chicks waiting to give you blow jobs off the stage…That’s all bullshit that some bands enjoy. And you can pick out the bands that are all about that shit. You can tell just by looking at ‘em.”