Ruhr is the worst recording I've ever heard. Literally. In terms of technical merit, the album might as well have been recorded with, say, the Nickelodeon™Karaoke Cassette Recorder. Or...well, actually, it's not quite that good. Talk about no-fi: it doesn't get any more raw and gritty and DIY than this. And yet somehow, the truly shitty sound quality doesn't completely ruin the album. Sure, Ruhr's technical shortfalls are a little excessive, but they also help create the album's grunge quality. And as a little band called Nirvana taught us, grunge can be a good thing.

Ruhr opens with the undeniable drumbeats and fierce guitar chords of "White Gold", the kind of earthy maelstrom that makes it impossible not to keep time with various bobbing appendages. A few bars later, the vocals cut in -- warbly, pained and disconcertingly close. It's hard to say whether Miss Autopsy's single member, one Steve Beyerink, is simply an awful singer, or if the vocals just suffer from the same overall pitfalls as the rest of the audio. I suspect it's the latter, but either way, his "singing" -- what amounts to mumbled incantations into said karaoke mic -- is fittingly unpolished. Similarly, the lyrics are rife with the kind of aimless longing appropriate to the album's grunge aesthetic. Although "White Gold" is easily the catchiest of Ruhr's selections, there's plenty of raw material present throughout. "Raw" being the key word. At the very least, certain tracks ("10,000 Romances" and "There is No Other Possible Way") are worthy of an audio makeover.

Given an upgrade to, maybe, a half-functional four-track, Miss Autopsy may be listenable. For now, I'll go as far as to suggest that Ruhr shows potential, but I can't be held to any promises. After all, it's impossible to really hear the album. Those Nickelodeon™ Karaoke recorders are total crap.