iwrestledabearonce - It's All Happening
Rating
RIYL
Between the Buried and MeCrotchduster
Genghis Tron
Cephalic Carnage
Release Date
06/02/2009
Label
Century MediaTracklist
1. You Ain't No Family2. White Water In the Morning
3. Danger in the Manger
4. I'm Cold and There Are Wolves After Me
5. Tastes Like Kevin Bacon
6. The Cat's Pajamas
7. Pazuzu for the Win
8. Black-eyed Bush
9. Eli Cash vs. The Godless Savages
10. See You In Shell
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Every so often a band comes along that adds a new element to a tired genre. For example: there's Enter Shikari splicing trance synths with post-hardcore, and then A Day To Remember combining pop punk with metalcore – hardly truly original or pioneering, I know, but if they have one thing in common it's that they appeal to a broader audience. Same goes for iwresteabearonce. By adding some new elements to the grindcore genre – humorous samples, female vocals, dance beats, 80's pop culture references (Super Mario and Inspector Gadget, for example) – the band have gained a following bigger than your normal run-of-the-mill grindcore band, and, as a result, signed to Century Media Records who have now released their full length début record, It's All Happening.
Well... I say full length. Totaling a lousy 33 minutes it seems the band have run out of fresh ideas. After a few songs of the same techy spiraling riffage and almost identical jazzy breakdowns, it becomes apparent the band doesn't actually have that many great ideas. iwresteabearonce had a drastic lineup change towards the end of last year losing three members, and I'm starting to think the change in the ranks may have had an effect on the quality of material. Aside from a sound clip of a horse neighing, the humour, which was a previously appealing feature of the band, has completely gone away along with the pop culture riffs. Losing their guitarist, who was also responsible for the sampling, may have been a result of this, and unfortunately the drop in quality is noticeable.
The record isn't all bad, though. The overall mellower “The Cat's Pajamas” with its shimmering guitars and more streamlined approach is an obvious standout as is “Taste's Like Kevin Bacon” (which was written with the old line up), and one noticeable element of iwresteabearonce that is still apparent is vocalist Krysta Cameron. Utilizing both extreme vocals and ethereal singing, she flirts between both a banshee brutality and harmonious angelic tones. This is the obvious draw on this record and, arguably, the group.
There's no point pussyfooting around it: iwresteabearonce are a gimmick. They're the Enter Shikari of the extreme metal world: they're cheesy, don't take themselves that seriously and they appeal to the teenage fringe-toting scenesters, but that doesn't mean to say they can't be enjoyable. That being said, I think this band achieved everything they were going to on their début EP and those looking for a little something more here will be sorely disappointed as there's only two songs (“Tastes Like Kevin Bacon” and “The Cat's Pajamas”) that surpasses anything on their previous release, and ultimately it seems the 23 minutes of that was enough. Unfortunately anything more just becomes a bore.
--Rich Taylor
Comments
Lehigh Valley, PA
Ugh...I just can't do it. I cannot get into this AT ALL. The only thing letting me give them at least two stars is the music, because they are decent musicians.
Claremont, CA
saw these guys live...fucking AWESOME! i love her singing voice, it borders bjork territory. and her vocal range is like tommy from BTBAM, all over the board.
Atascadero, CA
just couldnt' get into it.. although ive moved away from this kind of music. it's not terrible, just wasnt enjoyable to me.
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Horrid.
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West Haven, CT
She definitely steals Bjork as her main influence for her clean singing.
I like this CD. While its not the best of new and more recent metal acts who've blown up lately. They still offer something different to the table with the mesh of Metal and electronica. I give this record 3-3.5 stars.
If Blink 182 makes a new record and it gets over 2-3 stars I'm boycotting this site.
The Cityscape Burns Brighter By The Hour.
Infinitely Inwards
Definitely entertaining but nothing that impresses me beyond the tinges of technical musicianship. I def have a problem with the spastic songwrtiting. ADD grindcore/electronica... 6.5/10 for me.
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Minnesota
Not horrible. It's listenable at times, unlistenable at others, and pretty awesome during some parts. I'd say that averages out to a pretty average album.
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