more from
Magnetic Eye Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

FEAR IS A CRUEL MASTER

by RUBY THE HATCHET

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $6.99 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Fear is a Cruel Master LP and The Live at Earthquaker EP vinyl together for a limited time.
    *Vinyl Colors may vary.
    Shipping costs apply to additional items.

    Includes unlimited streaming of FEAR IS A CRUEL MASTER via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 14 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $40 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    FEAR IS A CRUEL MASTER - OUR 4TH FULL LENGTH STUDIO ALBUM.

    BAND EXCLUSIVE LIMITED TO 500 COPIES
    1ST PRESSING ON GLASS HOUSES (CLEAR) VINYL.

    2022 - MAGNETIC EYE RECORDS.
    COVER ART BY WELDER WINGS / LAYOUT BY JIMMY SCANTRON.

    Includes unlimited streaming of FEAR IS A CRUEL MASTER via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 10 days
    edition of 500 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $28 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    LP (pink/black marble vinyl) incl. printed inner sleeve and protection sleeve (500 copies available) 10/21/2022

    Includes unlimited streaming of FEAR IS A CRUEL MASTER via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $24.99 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    LP (sun yellow vinyl) incl. printed inner sleeve and protection sleeve

    Includes unlimited streaming of FEAR IS A CRUEL MASTER via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $22.99 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    10/21/2022

    Includes unlimited streaming of FEAR IS A CRUEL MASTER via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10.99 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    FEAR IS A CRUEL MASTER - OUR 4TH FULL LENGTH STUDIO ALBUM. PRE-ORDER THE LIMITED 1ST PRESSING - GLASS HOUSES (CLEAR) VINYL + A SIGNED 12X12" MATTE POSTER. 2022 - MAGNETIC EYE RECORDS. COVER ART BY WELDER WINGS / LAYOUT BY JIMMY SCANTRON.

    Includes unlimited streaming of FEAR IS A CRUEL MASTER via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 10 days
    edition of 500 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $35 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    FEAR IS A CRUEL MASTER - OUR 4TH FULL LENGTH STUDIO ALBUM. PRE-ORDER THE CD + SIGNED 12"X12"MATTE POSTER. 2022 - MAGNETIC EYE RECORDS. COVER ART BY WELDER WINGS / LAYOUT BY JIMMY SCANTRON.

    Includes unlimited streaming of FEAR IS A CRUEL MASTER via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 10 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Relive the ritual with RUBY THE HATCHET in Fear is a Cruel Master LIVE. This limited edition VHS is housed in a plastic case with full-color insert and brings you front and center at the band's sold-out record release show at Warehouse on Watts in Philadelphia PA!

    The live concert film was captured professionally via five HD cameras at the band's December 16, 2022 headlining show with support from Heavy Temple and Sonja!

    Limited to 75 copies worldwide!

    Includes unlimited streaming of FEAR IS A CRUEL MASTER via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    edition of 75  4 remaining
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Full-color printed J card, solid red shell with black print

    Includes unlimited streaming of FEAR IS A CRUEL MASTER via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $14.99 USD or more 

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Full-color printed J card, matte black shell with scarlet print

    Includes unlimited streaming of FEAR IS A CRUEL MASTER via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $13.99 USD or more 

     

1.
The Change 03:47
another scar is revealing  all the lines in your face  and the endless nights we spend dancing a razor blade  so we drive  ghosts on highways  playing all those songs didn’t need your sympathy  I just wanted to sing along  I never wanted to change  too wild to stay the same  I never wanted to change  too wild to stay the same  one more year is behind you  memories embraced  all the endless nights we spent  between a razor blade  so we drive  coastal highways don’t know what went wrong  didn’t need you to wait for me if you don’t know where you belong  I never wanted to change  too wild to stay the same  I never wanted to change  too wild to stay the same  they’ll get inside of your brain  and try to make you tame  I never wanted I never wanted to change  I never wanted to change  too wild to stay the same  I never wanted to change  too wild to stay the same  they’ll get inside of your brain  I’d rather go insane  I never wanted I never wanted  to change
2.
Deceiver 05:42
hey, something’s wrong with you and you can’t blame it on a thunder moon  you’ve had too much of your Bitches Brew well if you’d only let me I could pull you through  deceiver all is not lost  but wide oceans wait for you to cross  hey, something’s wrong with you and you can’t pin it to the things I do when the hour was late all the fear that grew  turned you a judas like I never knew   deceiver all is not lost  but wide oceans wait for you to cross  deceiver all is not lost  but wide oceans wait for you to cross  deceiver your head in your hands don’t let wide oceans make you a gambling man I’ll hold you in memory a sea of dreams were lost  so far but so close to me a sea of sound to cross  how quickly you turn on me and apathy exhausts  deceiver all is not lost…
3.
brother, sister, take the knife from me I’m afraid I’ve come undone now the devil has touched both our hands  there’s too much blood to bite my tongue and then you try to take my rights from me like it’s uneven where we stand the world will teach you bittersweet feeling  but won’t bend to your demand oh man here he comes an enigma head rings in hollow sound and your ideas are not your own he’s had them all somehow seething and spitting neanderthal on land he’s got all the makings of a primitive man feel fire burning feel fire burning you can drown yourself in apathy black and blue your wheel of war and all the errors of your thoughtless ways they must be hell to answer for no more now here he comes an enigma head rings in hollow sound and your ideas are not your own he’s had them all somehow seething and spitting neanderthal on land he’s got all the makings of a primitive man primitive man primitive man now here he comes an enigma head rings in hollow sound and your ideas are not your own he’s had them all somehow seething and spitting neanderthal on land he’s got all the makings of a primitive man
4.
1000 Years 05:54
frost bitten memory swinging its head around  lost all ability to tell sword and shadow from crown  be that as a lady I can’t go follow you on  so I turn around in an instant  and your face was lost in the crowd  and hell freezes over time’s hand on my shoulder  frost bitten memory swinging its head around  vast unpleasantry you kick me when I’m already down  be that as a lady I can’t go follow you on  so I turn around in an instant  and your face was lost in the crowd  and hell freezes over I’m 1,000 years older I look over my shoulder feel 1,000 years older  bodies lay on the shoreline mothers fathers lose their minds  marvel at man’s creation how their souls love frustration  butcher bastard opinion trample children and women  they came to find what is gone, what is gone  look around now it’s gone, now it’s gone  came to see what’s become, what’s become death lives here move along, move along  and hell freezes over and hell freezes over  I’m 1,000 years older
5.
Soothsayer 04:54
If you wonder how it all got started then rise from the grave roam the fields with the brokenhearted where blood has stained the page soothsayer dream taker earth is trembling as the days expire and darkness surrounds fate is spoken on the lips of liars and truth is fed to hounds if we’re running to the hills all the time then where will we land those who father such unholy outcomes they hold the devil’s hand soothsayer dream taker who’s the keeper of your dark desire and what are the laws of man with the ash from a funeral pyre the gods forsake the land soothsayer dream taker
6.
Last Saga 05:41
7.
Thruster 05:07
I can feel it as the tide rolls in  heads hanging down and my ears to the ground, and why listen, I just want to start again  they can’t tell me how to live out my life and die  oh no I hear them coming tearing our lives to ground  oh lord they got you running I don’t have time for that now  can you feel the thunder? beats in your chest and consumes all the rest, oh my  I’m still near you, brother  they can’t tell you how to live out your life and die  oh no I hear them coming tearing our lives to ground  oh lord they got you running I don’t have time for that now  all my memories are growing thin I traded them in for the road and the open sky we can burn it down and start again they can’t tell us how to live out our lives and die oh no I hear them coming tearing our lives to ground  oh lord they got you running I don’t have time for that now  wildness is your mother  trust her
8.
Amor Gravis 05:55
curse the sun for you sitting here without a view and all the day long I wait for night to get me through I’ve seen your face I know your name looking back I never knew the truth looking back I never knew you through the years you made our love a tomb looking back I think I’d rather lose curse the sun for you blood is turning cobalt blue and when the light’s gone a blackened sky will make me new I’ve seen your face I know your name looking back I never knew the truth looking back I never knew you through the years you made our love a tomb looking back I think I’d rather lose through the years you made our love a tomb hardened heart an evil in me grew… yes, it grew will you let me lose will you let me lose will you… we’re all the same, we’re all the same never change, we never change we’re all the same, we’re all the same never change, we never change looking back, I never knew looking back, I never knew the truth through the years, you made our love through the years, you made our love a tomb a tomb…

about

With "Fear Is a Cruel Master", RUBY THE HATCHET deliver exactly the brain-frying, catchy yet full of raw energy thriller-album that the American trailblazers acclaimed predecessor "Planetary Space Child" (2017) promised it to be. Five long years have passed since the New Jersey psych-rock squad dropped their last album, but the wait is finally over. RUBY THE HATCHET have reached a new peak of writing music as a collective that was hard won through sacrifices and an iron will to get better and to reach a new level each time. The album title, "Fear Is a Cruel Master", duly epitomizes the mood of the lockdown period in which it was written. Accustomed to working together as a group, singer Jillian Taylor, guitarist Johnny Scarps, drummer Owen Stewart, bassist Lake Muir, and organist Sean Hur were forced to spend more time apart than they normally would. "I read a lot during the pandemic, when I came across the phrase 'fear is a cruel master', Taylor explains. “At the time, you could see the fear and how it was holding people back. The title resonates with being in the music community, because it was shaky for everyone – from bands to booking agents to venues. Fear was in the air.” Recorded at New Future in Jersey with Paul Ritchie from THE PARLOR MOB, "Fear Is a Cruel Master" wasn't as meticulously mapped out as RUBY's previous albums. The band purposely left space for spontaneity and magic moments. Ultimately, the main theme of "Fear Is a Cruel Master" is self-reflection. Although these songs were forged in the crucible of world-stopping pestilence, they come with a timeless quality that transcends the moment of their creation. Everything that makes RUBY THE HATCHET such an outstanding and wildly loved act even among their peers is there – ranging from those sultry, honey-smoked vocals, via lush yet crisp guitars, to the spirit of rock 'n roll organ heroics. "Fear Is a Cruel Master" is definitely an album written after a decade of being in a band and looking back without regret at all the things done or not done. It is a testimony to that journey, as we now embark to follow the band's equally impressive and massive sonic wake.

Buy at our shop here:

worldwide: en.spkr.media
US/Canada: us.spkr.media

credits

released October 21, 2022

2022, 2022 Magnetic Eye Records

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

RUBY THE HATCHET New Jersey

Heavy psych-rock quintet from New Jersey.

New album "Fear Is a Cruel Master" delivers brain-fryingly catchy and full of raw energy cuts that embody the timeless spirit of rock 'n roll heroics.

shows

contact / help

Contact RUBY THE HATCHET

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

RUBY THE HATCHET recommends:

If you like RUBY THE HATCHET, you may also like: