Customer Reviews

Speak & Destroy

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Speak and Destroy," the industrial debut CD from My Ruin, officially marks Miss B's transition from hardcore hip-hop to heavy metal. Heavily inspired by the Book of Revelations (the Biblical tale about the Antichrist), "Speak and Destroy" is a Goth rock recording laced with vampire lust, black lace and crucifictions. Much more expressive in her vocals here than in her previous works with Tura Satana, Tairrie B. portrays an angry ex-lover who, after repeatedly questioning her faith in God, falls in love with a Hell-spawned mate and gets tangled in a dangerous web of abuse, jealousy and deception. She soars on an emotional roller-coaster, emitting earth-shattering screams, sensual croons and low whispers. Some songs mark Miss B. as the vamp, a temptress capable of luring men to their deaths. In others, she is declared the bruised victim, naive and brainwashed by her boyfriend's angelic aura. "Speak and Destroy" has plenty of audio highlights: "Close Your Eyes" (which appears to be set in a cheap motel room) is rhythmically supported by a swaying bass, which in turn provides the song's sleazy nature. "Beautiful Flower" paints the picture of a terrifying garden, one where dying blossoms wilt beaneath a black sky and rooted in a blood-soaked patch. Both "Horrible Pain" and "June 10th" stand on their own with Tairrie B.'s provacative spoken word poetry. In songs like "Blasphemous Girl" and "Diavolina," Mick Murphy's tense guitar strings appear to quiver and stretch in tension.
I chose to rate "Speak and Destroy" 4 stars because I felt there were some minor flaws. Tairrie's Goth-style lyrics seem somewhat corny here and there (at least when compared to those on the 2001 "Prayer Under Pressure" CD). The lyrical content incorporates dialogue from well-known horror movies, the number 666, self-mutilation, red lipstick, occult symbols and even Johnny Homicidal (a spooky comic book sold in Hot Topic stores). Also, I personally feel that the "Prologue" and "Epilogue" commentary should be eliminated, for they are completely out of place with the rest of the album's concept. Nevertheless, despite having a 4-star rating, "Speak and Destroy" is definitely an album one has to have in his/her collection: not only was it created by a talented rock group, but the CD exudes an eerie and beautiful substance that is tragically lacking in MTV videos.

After hearing this ferocious, independent, angry, anti-Christian hypocrisy woman's metal sound, plus her cover of Soft Cell's "Tainted Love," this ended up on my shelf, followed later by her better second album, and most recently, her third release. Here are the highlights.

"Terror" is mostly monologue, with a drum machine going on, along with a fierce grinding metal guitar, after which she angrily screams "f----r!" These lines describe what Tairrie B is about: "I choose to speak, sing, scream/I am lips, hips, t-ts... I am the power of a woman." and "I am cold and distant yet warm and close/to those who deserve to see that side of me/part of me... the heart of me/You find me so hard to understand in your world/The world you perceive to be so normal/I am deformed... scorned, reborn/I am me." Here is where we get the name of her group: "Because nobody is going to ruin me, if I have to I will ruin myself.. And it will be 'My Ruin'/f----r!"

Her cover of "Tainted Love" features a chugging metal guitar, with industrial distorted vocals that later turn into her trademark roars. I prefer her version to Manson's any day.

"Blasphemous Girl" describes Tairrie to a tee. After some opening heavy and slowly chugging power chords recall early Soundgarden or Hole, she raps the lyrics at a quick tempo. God wants a..." "I AM A BLASPHEMOUS GIRL" she roars, along with some provocative line about a supposed saviour. Pounding power chords hammer out something apocalyptic while she roars out the rest of the song. The last line is some creative: "Honesty looks good on you, but liar should be your tattoo."

"Absolution" shows her living in a dark world, tormented by lies of her loved one, telling of being scarred and wounded. At the end, she says, "My revenge on you will not kill you/it will make you want to kill yourself." Now that's a kind of revenge I'd like to enact.

"Horrible Pain (Within My Heart)" is a creepy spoken word recitation over an electric guitar and echoing drums of a demonic man who's Tairrie's lover, saviour, whatever, and some of the descriptions are spine-chilling: "I call it his serial killer look/Like he wants to f--- me and kill me all at the same time/it scares me./it turns me on."

"This is a mantra, so be warned/hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" screams Tairrie in "Diavolina." I haven't heard of any revenge songs against another girl, where the title character says "dirty girl so mean/can't clean me/I will be your disease."

"Sick With It" features pounding metal chords and roars, while "June 10" is a sad spoken heartbreaking remembrance of the day Tairrie meets someone, someone who is no longer part of her life.

"Cosmetic" is a commentary on how makeup on women is a false front that doesn't reveal inner beauty: "lipstick just distorts her mouth/mascara puts her eyes to sleep/Cos beauty's only skin deep."

Tairrie is SICK OF THE "Sycophant", and slams nu-metal groups and those who blindly follow them, i.e. "children of the Korn." As for the groups, she sings, "tryna scare us with your scream, but it's all routine and all you do is take and steal and imitate." And no one screams "WHY?" in an anguished and angry roar like Tairrie.

Other songs incorporate either slow, minimalist industrial sounds, or Tairrie's angry roars, but the inner pain and anger she feels is enough to either make one very uncomfortable, or suck in that pain and anger and make it one's own. Where Sarah Brightman represents the benign angelic ideal, Tairrie B is my Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance whose songs of pain with motifs of Jesus and the crucifixion, and a rage that's unrivalled, the ne plus ultra of the woman scorned. Here is one woman who destroys when she speaks, mostly the destruction of hypocrisy and lies of both organized religion and bad men.

I am so pleased that I purchased Speak & Destroy by My Ruin. I would certainly recommend to ANYONE that they purchase this album. Tairrie B has the most amazing voice and I can tell she poured her heart out into the lyrics of this album. Hard and heavy at times in songs like Sycophant, yet slightly soft in songs like June 10th. I love this album!

Tura Satana was, arguably, one of the best non-mainstream bands to emerge from the United States. To be succinct, nobody sounds like Tairrie B. Period. So, naturally, I was upset to hear that the band is a thing of the past. Stupidly, I seemed to forget that Miss B. isn't the type to stay silenced for long. But realization hit me full-force when I heard My Ruin.

"Speak & Destroy" is a raw (and sometimes raucous) odyssey into the mind of a talented - and unapologetically honest - woman. The strength of the lyrics and instrumentation is evident from the first full track, "Terror", a sort of self-indulgent, self-empowering soliloquy. And it definitely doesn't stop there. From "Tainted Love" to "Blasphemous Girl" to "Masochrist", the CD stays reflective of its creator: a force to be reckoned with.

*I would actually have given this CD 4.5 stars. I'm deducting half a point based only on the fact that this CD seemed, in some places, to be mastered poorly.

Well, I'm going to go about this review as if the reader is completely new to the band or has only heard very little of this band. So I'm not going to compare it to their other albums and so forth.

...So I know metal fans can be a fickle bunch (sometimes very closed minded), and if you are one those metal heads that listen to only the purest metal, then you will not like this CD. Not that I think there is anything wrong with that ("to each their own"). With that being said, I strongly feel that if you're curious about this band then you are most likely to be open to their sound. Their sound on this CD is a blend of a lot of other sounds, bands that came to my mind are Rob Zombie, Otep, Marylin Mansion, KMFDM, and others. I'm not saying their unoriginal, it's just that they have a similar sound to those bands. In fact I like their sound a lot. This band is fronted by a powerful female voice. A lot of passion, a lot of anger, a lot of pain, a lot of pleasure, a lot of everything in her voice. The vocals range from spoken word, to growling. There is a lot of spunk and attitude in her vocals, at times I wanted her to growl more, but none the less I like the vocals a lot on this album. She also has some pretty memorable lyrics. The music is heavy, and for the most part has a groove to it. If that makes any sense. This album (this band) is likely to be right down your alley, or you're gonna hate it. If you think you might like them, then you probably will, if you think you might not like them, then you probably wont like them. Overall this is a good album with a lot of tracks (15 actual songs), and from last I saw you can get this CD pretty cheap on here. So go for it. One of the best things you can say about any album is that it makes you want to hear it again, and I will listen to this album again. It's a very solid play.

My favorite tracks: Diavolin, Blasphemous Girl, and Terror.

If you're a Jack off Jill, Kindeythieves, Collide, or Otep fan; you will absolutely love this band. My Ruin Screams out everyt black thought in the back of your mind, but with a reassuring soft melody at times to pull it back. From here I'll go on and tell a little bit about each song, what I think and sich...

The pro and epi are a waste of time, and I see no use for it in the album. Un-necessary really. But I have to admit, you'll crack a smile when you hear the man's voice.

Terror, Has to be my favorite song in the entire album. IT's like a release of contradictions, which is always great to confront if I do say so myself. The simple lines that go w/the beat really makes you think about each word, you want to know the meaning behind it.

Tainted Love is another good one, I have to admit I'm a saavy MM fan, how could I not like this one? I like how they made this their song, not trying to immitate the master himself.

My beautiful Flower was awesome, I can't even put it to words. It's weird feeling you get. You have to hear it to understand, trust me!

This is truly a beautiful album, put together, not thrown together. There is no fillers in this album whatsoever!

Fantastic album! Rough, harsh, angry, and honest!! Great female vocalist and very original...Very cool songs and beats! This is one of my favs!!

I bought this disc on the strength of Terror & her cover of Tainted Love but found so much more. From heavy hitting songs "Sycophant'", "Preacher" and "Sick With It" (Kittie fans should check this disc out for sure) to the slower moody songs, "june 10th" and "Close Your Eyes" This disc has atmosphere and rage and works because of the mix in styles and speed throughout.

My ruins release with guts! this is an awesome album and the disc arrived exactly in the described condition... perfect!

this is by far the one of the best my ruin albums.none of tairrir's lyrics and boring and this album has it's own tone and speaks to be itself.i have the uk version so i'll tell you about it........................................................
prolouge-a 6 second intro that is just unique and doesn't make much sense
terror-honestly the most rageful song on the album,speaks so loudly and honestly.i love the ending.!!!
preacher-this is an odd song and i don't really get the point but i like it and the first time i listened to it i screamed to the chorus and got yelled at.
tainted love-this is a great song by soft cell but i like tairrie's more than thiers and marilyn's.
blasphemous girl-god wants a piece of my ass!!!!!!i LOVE this song.this was the first song i heard on the album and i loved it.
close your eyes-i don't really like this one
absolution-this is my favorite song on the cd!!!!she raors so loudly and the lyrics are beautiful.
horrible pain-i like this one,the lyrics are cool and this song is slow and i love the end...but no one will EVER be able to chop of tairrie's hands!
monster-this will destroy your brain!!!!it's so damn complicated
sick with it-this rocks hard!
my beautiful flower-i've never fully listened to this song??????
diavolina-scary
june 10th-really creepy and it crawls up your spine,i like it!
bright red scream-this kind of sounds like it wasn't mixed.
cosmetic-i love the part where she just talks9the verses and chouruses.)it calms down and gets you ready for the end of the album.
sychophant-right when you thought this was gonna be calm is shoots you!!!!!!
the two outro's are a nice sitdown..............................


i have to say this isn't as good as the second or the third but it still rocks!!!!and it just sounds weird without mick!!!!!!