By 1982, the lineup of Ruin was largely settled: Vosco (Thomas Adams) on vocals, Cordy Swope on bass, the Wallis brothers on guitars, and Richard Hutchins on drums.

[1] Incoming bassist Cordy Swope added elements of 1960s British invasion and American underground art rock to the band's mix of styles.

[1][2][6] Glenn Wallis has vigorously rejected this label, insisting that the entire focus of the band was the "perfectly ordinary" nature of everyday reality,[12] but the characterization has been repeated.

"[8] A decade before the advent of Krishnacore or other acceptable displays of "spirituality" in the typically brutal American underground scene,[17] Ruin was being called a "Buddhist punk band.

"[1][12][18][19] While, according to Adams, it is true that five of the six members of Ruin were practicing Buddhists during the period of formation,[19] Wallis argues that the label is misapplied in that the band as a whole eschewed the proselytizing that it suggests.

In an interview, Adams has said that it is understandable that they were mistaken for "mysticism", "spirituality", or Buddhist quietism,[19] though they have more in common with Antonin Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty or Guy Debord's Situationist International.

We did things like dressing in white and turning the lights down in order to reduce the individual, ego-assertive aspect of "performing" in favor of the communal, cathartic qualities of what we imagined a Dionysian frenzy might have felt like.