Artist: Iwrestledabearonce
Title: Ruining It For Everybody
Genre: Metalcore/ Experimental Metal
Release Date: 22nd July 2011
Label: Century Media
Album Review
No one knows what to expect from IWRESTLEDABEARONCE. From the strange title to their even stranger music, the band debuted with a wonderful blend of heavy metal, deathcore, alternative rock, and progressive metal that just jumped all over the place with ‘It’s All Happening’. And furthermore, to throw things off, the band played the perfect joke up on their upcoming sophomore album that it would be mostly black metal (which would have been a great experiment). Sadly, it was all a hoax, but the band still presents ‘Ruining It For Everybody’ quite a treat so it doesn’t exactly ruin anything. It’s just as unpredictable as their debut. Krysta Cameron still has those harsh shrieks and soft croons that make her quite a versatile vocalist among lots of female fronted bands, and the musicianship from her cohorts is second to none. There is the mix of deathcore elements in the track “Next Visible Delicious,” some industrial loopings on ‘Gold Jacket, Green Jacket’, and some just straight up great melodic parts and progressive parts on ‘I’m Gonna Shoot’ (mostly due to Krysta’s clean vocals). Everything from IWRESTLEDABEARONCE is wonderfully crafted so each track is varied, never sounding the same twice.
‘It Is “Bro” Isn’t It?’ is perhaps the heaviest track on the album, mostly featuring aggressive screams and distorted guitar chugs, although there is a lot of technical / mathcore bits involved as well, but they aren’t played at headache speed. ‘Break It Down Comancho’ progressively builds itself as it switches between heavy and soft, layering the harsh and clean vocals together for an excellent combination. Finally there is ‘Button It Up’ which is the most experimental track with the vocal distortion- like echoing underwater- combined with a semi simple musical structure that just chugs along for the most part during the snarls, but becomes more seamlessly flowing near the end of the song, which also helps with the ferocity. Just couple that that with the proggy keyboard moments and it closes the album in just the right way. Ultimately this album is going to sound like something completely randomly pieced together, but unpredictability serves IWRESTLEDABEARONCE quite well. They defy any “one trend”, save for being metal, but don’t expect them to give the same album twice at this point. Old fans will be just as perturbed as the new ones simply because what they expected just fell apart like shattered glass, and they’ll either hate it or love it. Hopefully the latter! It’s difficult to say where the band will go next, but it will surely be innovative and who knows… maybe that black metal joke will resurface as a blessing in disguise.
Tracklist
01. Next Visible Delicious - 2:40
02. You Know That Ain’t Them Dog’s Real Voice - 2:58
03. Deodorant Can’t Fix Ugly - 3:17
04. This Head Music Makes My Eyes Rain - 3:24
05. It Is “Bro” Isn’t It? - 2:39
06. Gold Jacket, Green Jacket - 2:24
07. Break It Down Camacho - 2:53
08. Stay to the Right - 2:29
09. I’m Gonna Shoot - 2:37
10. Karate Nipples - 3:06
11. Button It Up - 3:19
Line-up
Krysta Cameron – Vocals
Steven Bradley – Guitar, Keyboards, Programming, Samples
Mike “Rickshaw” Martin – Bass
Mikey Montgomery – Drums
John Ganey – Guitar, Keyboards, Programming, Samples
Website
www.iwrestledabearonce.com
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 10
Sound: 9
Total: 9.5 / 10
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