Iwrestledabearonce
Self Titled
6.1
Iwrestledabearonce are one of those bands that like to mash together a whole bunch of genres and sounds that simply don’t go together. Starting out like a female-fronted Dillinger Escape Plan circa Calculating Infinity, the band shifts frequently and abruptly into keyboard-driven pomp, electro-pop, lounge and full-blown dance music. Sound like complete rubbish? Well, that all might depend on your sense of humor. Try as I might, it's difficult to come down too hard on a band with song titles like “Vlork: Mighty Wielder of Sheep” and “Corey Feldman Holocaust”.
What Iwrestledabearonce have going for them is solid musicianship. Sure, aping DEP wasn’t novel five years ago, but as a lover of that band’s early releases I can’t help but warm to this. Despite the fact that nothing here gels, each individual sound/style is pulled off decently. In fact, if you were to omit the song titles and silly vocal samples you’d think the band were taking the music fairly seriously. Vocalist Krysta deserves mention for her mean death growl, as well as some impressive clean pipes. While there’s no denying this band is all over the place musically and their songs are completely scattershot, there’s enough catchiness amongst the irreverence to make this release fun.
Iwrestledabearonce falls firmly under the ‘guilty pleasure’ category. It’s nearly two years old now so I’m curious as to how these guys may have progressed. I may be a metal lover but definitely no purist and truth be told, this isn’t nearly as embarrassing as some of the stuff I load onto my iPod when no-one’s looking, so in that respect it wasn’t too hard to get into these guys. However if the mere thought of a metal/pop/dance freakshow already has you clutching your stomach, consider yourself warned.
