Review Summary: iwrestledabearonce shows alot of potential on thier self-titled debut EP. The constant mixing of genres, adolescent moments, & Inspector Gadget & Mario riffs, can be annoying, but the EP's still worth a spin if you like the genre and female screamers.
iwrestledabearonce is a six-piece band from Shreveport, Louisiana that has become decently popular with the "scene" crowd because of their mix of Grindcore, Death Metal, electronica, & jazz. Another source of their popularity is their female vocalist. Females have always had a more beautiful aspect to their singing voices and when a female screams it just adds to the interest.
Vocalist Krysta screams, growls, and sings her way through the songs like, ironically, a bear. Her screams and growls are good, but it's in her clean parts where her voice really shines. She has beautiful singing voice which completely contrasts her screaming, yet she screams far more than she sings. While her screaming is far from bad, and is pretty good, it can grow tiresome and annoying. She needs to have more variety in her screaming or at least improve her current style.
The songs are fast, chaotic, & seem to have no structure. All the songs sound similar and can become repetitive. The transitions from brutal chaos to beautiful melodies are rough and feel random. Each part is good, but they really need to work on the transition. Also, there are parts that feel adolescent & unnecessary. For example, the beginning of Alaskan Flounder Basket starts out with the infamous scene from Scary Movie 2 where a girl says "I'm gonna piss on your face, and then I'm going to fart in your mouth, ya, then I'm gonna s*** on your balls, Ray." The lyrics aren't terrible, but definitely need some work.
The instruments add to the overall chaos of the songs. Guitarists Steven & Mim show definite talent and help set the mood throughout the EP. They play the soft parts good, but really shine in the harder parts. There are are no special, stand out riffs & sometimes it feels that they recycle the riffs, but the guitars are played fast and precisely. Bassist Dave & keyboardist Daniel do their parts by help setting the electronica & jazz moods, but are still nothing that far above average like most bassists & keyboardist in music today. The drums are really the stand-out part of the instrumentation, though. Drummer Mikey helps keep the rythym almost perfectly & the double-bass almost makes you think that it's programmed. The only real pet-peeves in the instrumentation are the Inspector Gadget & Mario riffs. I don't know whether to applaud them for putting a little fun into their music or to be disappointed in them for not having the originality to make their own riffs. But overall the instruments are solid, and while they need work, great potential is obvious.
Overall, the iwrestledabearonce EP shows great potential from a band that seems to have their way set for them. They really need to work on the transition to the melodic parts and need to have better overall song structures. The guitars are good and fast, but feel recycled often & the bass and keyboard have nothing necessarily special about them. This EP has some really great parts, but the bad parts level it out to about average. It feels very adolescent at times, like the beginning of "Alaskan Flounder Basket" and at the end of "Corey Feldam Holocaust" where "try not to suck any dick on the home" is repeated several times. The strongest track on here is 'Ulrich Firelord: Breaker Of Mountains', while the weakest is 'Firelord Ulrich (Ulrich Firelord remix)'.
Recommended If You Like
The Devil Wears Prada
Bring Me The Horizon
Job For A Cowboy
