The Bunny The Bear - The Stomach For It Review
Strangely, it’s the bunny that roars and the bear who sings.
rating: 2
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Strangely, its the bunny that roars and the bear who sings. When I started listening to this, I hated it, and Ill be honest. I didnt want to review it. I reviewed something else I had on my pile instead, Night Verses debut EP. Something good. Very good even. So, one terrible nights sleep later and the predictably soul destroying day job later, I came back to this. I brewed a coffee, and I started listening, whilst admittedly absolutely demolishing the levels on the newest Angry Birds for Google Chrome. On fire I was, some might say, I was fucking flying. Something happened though, as I watched hideous pig beast after hideous big beast fall by the might, and deft aim, of my ill tempered birds. I didnt hate it. Or rather, without my full attention on it, the good bits shone through a little clearer. There are good bits!? Backtracking slightly, Ill reflect with a fresh mug of coffee. On first press of play of the first track on this album, Congregation, I was greeted by artwork that screamed of scene beyond scene and so began the mock trance synths. I could see where this were going. Enter Shikari had really brought trance to the house with their dance meets scream beginnings in Britain. Similar synths made their way overseas. In the U.S. of A. though they were adapted as fancy add-ons for the all cool kids who were like, so totally hardcore, Hell, they even started using auto tune. It was an ilk I wanted nothing to do with, then here I am having to sit down focussed, listen and review. Except, it got more confusing from here. The aforementioned intro track builds on pulsing trance, looped keys, automated spoken female vocals and background wails, before the more traditional metalcore/post-hardcore guitars come in, except with clean vocals that sound somewhere between Coheed & Cambria, Jaguar Love and 80s power metal air raid sirens, backed by hardcore barks. Not in a cool, genre-splicing way though, just in a it sounds a fucking mess kind of way, not helped by the genuinely really bad production. I mean, really, really bad. The synths are way too high, the guitars and kit sound like theyre in a different room, or at the very least the band are playing in a room you happen to have headphones on listen to some thumping choons. The vocals seem to jump violently between audible, overpowering and background noise. Do you guys mind not singing and screaming? Im trying to listen to some random electronic sounds! Now, hold on Morgan, I hear you cry, let me just backtrack your backtrack, you said there were good bits man. Finish the fucking story! Firstly, were not on adrenochrome, I havent got six beautiful tits growing out of my back, were not in Vegas and you arent in the middle of a near heart attack inducing paranoid episode. So just calm down a second, Im getting to that. http://youtu.be/6SyTSH80gf0 You see, the annoying thing about this album is for all its mess, and it is a mess, there are shining through, some glimmering good bits. Ive read a couple of reviews of this album whilst listening, some hated, near despised it, others thought it was anywhere between cool and awesome. The negative reviews tended to spend their time slagging it off whilst defending their right to do so Im totally open minded, genre-splicing is my bag baby, I love Dillinger Escape Plan man, I can take it but I cant stomach this (sic) but they didnt bother picking up on any positives. Now, Im an open minded music fan. Im really keen on acts taking disparate genres and styles then melding them together . I love Dillinger Escape Plan, theyre possibly the greatest band Ive had the pleasure of throwing my sweat ridden carcass around too, twice, so far. Whilst The Bunny The Bear arent my bag though, baby, its clear that this band arent really a mediocre band, theyre a marmite band, theyre going to be loved and hated. They always say any reaction is better than no reaction dont they? http://youtu.be/tjJ5cdVskw8 Either way, in among the confused mess of it all, theres these elusive good bits Ive mentioned. Every so often, theyll stumble upon something, they might not even be aware of it, but theyre there, whether its a really cool chord progression on the synths, a great little hook or a nice groove. You kind of wish it was these parts they had cut up and thrown together. The heavier breaks are pretty generic all in all, but in the faster paced melodic parts theres some hope. The vocals too, for example the clean vocals are generally great, perhaps the strongest aspect of the bands sound, not to everyones taste, but really good to my ears. Though, I imagine you guessed not to everyones taste was pretty much this bands forte already. 39,682 people can't be wrong.