I don't really care about the hype behind A Wilhelm Scream. What I do care about is the feeling I got when I first put this on my record player. At the end of the day, even if this had been done a million times before, if any song can make me bounce off the walls like "Diver" has been doing, that's a GOOD THING in my book. But you know what, this hasn't been done a million times before. It's been done only once. Face it, no one sounds like A Wilhelm Scream. (Some of you will take that to be a good thing.) Mute Print and Ruiner were enough to make a like-minded budding songwriter sit and cry in the corner yet be so inspiring at the same time; shit, there I go again. Sorry. It happens a lot.

I personally preferred Mute Print to Ruiner; I thought it was more catchy and listener-friendly. Ruiner was technically impressive, sure, but finished a close second in my mind, which is why this 7" is great news for people like me: It has 2 unused tracks from the Mute sessions. Don't panic, they're not second-rate leftovers in any way. I get the impression the first track, "Diver," was left off purely because it would have interrupted the flow of the album, as the intro is more drawn out than anything from MP. It's not as "riffy" either to begin with, so maybe it was a bit of a sore thumb. As a stand-alone track here though, it just absolutely blows me away. We still get the famous vocal harmonies and tempo changes, but the EpiFat (sorry) influences are clearer here than at any other time I can think of from the last two LPs. I really can't think of any reason why an AWS convert wouldn't like this. It's so addictive.

As for the second track, "They Like Their Turtlenecks Ribbed," this is by far their simplest and fastest song from the Nitro era. It's over before any of AWS's trademarks can be stamped on it, which to be honest left me feeling disappointed the first time around, but it's still a good song, one for people who can't get into this band. Although having said that, we all know who's going to be buying this: Fans of the band who are looking for that extra fix until the next full-length. For that purpose, this nifty little thang can do no wrong. For the haters, hypehypehypehypehype.