Ruby Bullet

I have to say that this New York based band is really mind-blowing! Ruby Bullet’s music, to me, is totally captivating and refreshingly different. While listening to some of the songs off of their recently released album, Nothing Left to Bleed On, I couldn’t help myself. I had to keep listening to their songs over and over. My personal favorite is “My Everything”. It’s like Evanescence meets the Kidney Thieves. The raw, progressive, metal, rock, punky edge that they have is unlike anything else I have heard. So very distinctive, they break the genre rules and make up their own! The music is perfectly balanced in the chaotic melodies and strong beats.

Starting out at as neighbors in 2000 and also in the band Sex Digital, Ruby Bullet soon became a duo and the rest is history. You would never know by listening to their music that there were only two members to this band. Pete Vassil is on drums and Suzanne Sterne on vocals, guitar, and bass. Oh, the bass, Suzanne uses organ foot pedals. Talk about multitasking! The combination of these two individuals is definitely dynamic to say the least. Pete’s chops, changes and timing are so impeccably smooth. Suzanne’s vocals are remarkable and a perfect match to the music. I bet they are amazing to watch on stage. I am absolutely going to keep track of these two.

Add Ruby Bullet to your list of bands to check out. You will not be disappointed. Their CD is available on: www.cdbaby.com/rubybullet and www.victoriouspirate.com
- http://www.northeastintune.com/

Doesn't the lady on this CD look cute? But hey, watch out. Look very
closely. She's fully covered in blood. Still she tells you, that she
loves you. Tender, warm music with a brutal and aggressive undertone.
The CD cover also explains the title of the CD. I bet, that the lady
in the bathtub has killed quite some people and now she's washing
away the blood from her body. The remainder of the picture was too
gruesome to show. Here's the story of RUBY BULLET. The band hails
from New York City and consists of Suzanne Sterne on guitar, bass and
vocals, and Pete Vassil on drums. The seven songs have a total
running time of about twenty-seven minutes. The first two songs sound
alternative and have a nice beat. Some groove is added in "Fall".
Gothic rock and progressive metal go hand in hand, and the
instrumental part in this song remembered me of the good old RUSH,
yet with an alternative twist. "Thorn" starts off with some heavy
riffs, reminding me of KORN or PANTERA, but then they go back to the
more alternative gothic style, that sounds similar to EVANESCENCE.
This comparison is made because of the voice of Suzanne, who we
already know from the band SEX DIGITAL. "What I Know" captures
another fine instrumental piece, a lot of progressive rock bands
would be damn proud of. Showing us, that the band is capable of
turning alternative (or more gothic-sounding) parts into progressive
moments and vice versa into one song. Look at the picture on the back
of this CD. Suzanne smiles lovely, but on the other hand she looks so
vicious. This also reflects in their music. It may look harmless on
the outside, but there's a lot of aggressiveness inside as well. OK,
enough said about this CD. It's time to clean up the blood from my
bedroom walls. Website: http://www.rubybullet.com.

_ Toine van Porten - Metal Maidens

The NYC duo Ruby Bullet reveal their dark and edgy designwork on their seven-track offering NOTHING LEFT TO BLEED ON. Equipped with a strong female vocal and barrage of dramatically-induced hard rock with tons of Goth charm and meaty hooks, cuts like "In My Silence" and "Thorn" conjure up a Evanescence meets Opeth vibe, while the discernibly noisy jazz feel of "What I Know" demonstrates just one of this unit's versatile approaches to their progressive pop concoction. Mixing complex musical nuances with everyday melodies, Ruby Bullet manages to get their musical rocks off at the same time as presenting the listener with solid slabs of well-crafted rock that provide a supple blueprint for every disenchanted female rock fan to follow. www.rubybullet.com -Mike SOS - 3:16 Productions

I've been following the fate of melodic post-prog band Ruby Bullet in its various incarnations since I first saw them in New York in 2002, when they were performing as Sexdigital. Five years and many more band members later they have cut out all the fat, leaving only the core duo of Suzanne Sterne and Pete Vassil. Their long overdue debut release Nothing Left To Bleed On (Victorious Pirate Records, 2007) is indeed a tribute their perseverance, as well as to their creativity and amazing musicianship.

It's no stretch when I say that Sterne is probably the most talented female in rock - ever. At first listen you'll notice her gorgeous voice soaring over the complex guitars and manic bass lines. Then you'll read the liner notes and realize that she's performing those complex guitars and manic bass lines! To see her live is indeed a rare treat: she switches between bass and guitar duties with a power that belies her petite stature.

Drummer Vassil is no less extraordinary. Imagine: Dave Grohl meets Tommy Lee - playing jazz! Vassil artfully dodges in and out of alternate time signatures with the grace and power of both bodybuilder and ballerina.

The sound is raw and organic, alternatingly punk, then jazz and then metal. The lyrical content is quite dark; Sterne must have worked through some real issues when writing this album.

Their greatest strength of this duo lies in their subtlety. They seldom play in 4/4 but they do odd-times so eloquently the non-musician might not even notice. They craft elaborate, dissonant runs that don't sound that difficult - until you try to figure them out! Most of their songs top out at 4 minutes, just enough time to create something both powerful and effective. It's a bit like a striptease - they never show you everything they have at once.

I find myself putting this album on repeat more that any other recent release. After releasing a demo version of the album last year I'm thrilled to have the final product in my iPod. This is one band I will be following for quite some time.

- Progressiveworld.net

There are a lot of stereotypical roles for women in metal, whether they are the operatic Diva providing some archetypal "beauty" to the "beast" of the traditional metal sound, or providing orchestral or keyboard textures within some overblown musical onslaught. It's somewhat bittersweet that Suzanne Sterne, being the songwriting mastermind, bassist and studio guitarist for Ruby Bullet, is something of a rarity in the metal scene, but that fact can be easily overlooked; compared to many competing releases within the realm of avant-garde metal, Splitting Heirs is a polished set, taking an approach to complex, math-oriented metal that is refreshing, organic and not completely overcooked.

Citing Tool, The Mars Volta and Rush as influences (among many others), one can immediately tell at what musical altar Sterne and drummer Pete Vassil worshipped. While each of the five tunes here fit pretty snugly into song form (having memorable hooks, verses, choruses, and dynamic shifts), the songs feature an appreciable balance of simplicity and complexity, where compound time signatures appear to have a purpose other than to trick the listener. The best moments on the album are the most stripped down, where the overdubbing is kept to a minimum and one can really appreciate the rhythmic interplay between each instrument. Sterne describes herself as a "bassist at heart," and this comes across in her use of a five-stringed instrument, which is at the heart of the most memorable moments on the EP. Vassil's drumming is ornamental but not overbearing, and he and Sterne have a complementary interplay that you don't often see in a metal rhythm section - and seeing video clips of Ruby Bullet's live performance, in which the guitar duties are performed by Aurelien Budynek, you can really see an energy present that is sometimes lost in the mix on the EP.

That's not to say that Ruby Bullet isn't a good studio band - just that sometimes there's a bit too much where there doesn't need to be. Sterne's vocals are well layered and feature some distinctive dual lines and harmonies that add an extra punch to the lyrics, and there are some moments where the massed sound of the bass and guitar tracks congeal quite well. But some of these moments seem tentative, and I often wished that the group had chosen to strip back a few of the overdubs so that the quality of the songwriting can be fully appreciated. For most of the EP, however, there is a confidence that allows these songs to celebrate their leanness. I've heard countless other progressive, math and avant-garde rock and metal bands overcompensate with tons of layers and endless studio tricks, creating an unlistenable mess, and there are many great moments on Splitting Heirs that prove this band is more assured in their approach.

Ruby Bullet is a relatively young band, with two releases under its belt, and I can see many good things in their future. A future, full length album would give them the chance to toy around with their material in the ways that are hinted at here, and I look forward to such a release to see how Sterne and Vassil rise to that particular challenge. In the meantime, Splitting Heirs is a well-focused 19 minutes of music that teases the listener with a few expectations, then defies most of them. - Avant-garde Metal - www.avantgarde-metal.com/

I've been told this creature exists, that there are women who are active in metal, beyond flirting with keys and providing angelic voices. I've also been told that the world was created in six days and that there are fairies at the bottom of my garden. But it seems at least one of these propositions is true. Ruby Bullet consists of the duo of Pete Vassil and Suzanne Sterne; but in a reversal of roles, Vassil is merely there to provide drums, whilst the true star (ahem) is Sterne, who provides clean vocals, songwriting and all other instruments.
Yet this feminist victory would be a pyrrhic one if this were rubbish, or merely another mediocre entrant to the vastly overpopulated worlds of raw black metal, metalcore or melodeath -- or worse, another heavenly voiced entrant to romantic goth doom metal. But Ruby Bullet is none of the above, and instead they prefer to use a lot of progressive tendencies, off kilter rhythms and unusual time signatures (4/4 time? What's that?) to create a rather unique entrant to female fronted metal. Although it was produced in NY, USA, the album does have a rather European feel. It's hardly a catchy number, but an entertaining release that is a thankful deviation from the norm.
- Quentin Kalis - www.chroniclesofchaos.com