Spazzcore, mathcore, weirdcore, whatever. Iwrestledabearonce are in a new breed of bands that are nothing if not ridiculous and, make no mistake, their jumpy, progressive, dissonant, female fronted metal is really not supposed to make a whole load of sense to the casual listener. The fairly tragic name coupled with dirty screams juxtaposed against big chorus hooks, and synthesizers clashing against machine gun guitars over complex rhythms is exactly the sort of thing car crashes are made of – on paper, ‘Ruining It For Everybody’ should be one a “bus hits hen party in a limousine killing 100 people” kinda of car crash, but it doesn’t end up quite that at all.
Iwrestledabearonce‘s second album proper shows a great understanding of the music they’re making, and though it’s bonkers and the sort of music that your parents (and likely some of your friends) will shake their head in despair at you listening to, the band are what you get when you stare down the barrel of modern progressive metal.
Just over ten years ago, Slipknot arrived complete with boiler suits and masks, and they’ve earned the respect of their peers by persevering, so fuck it, Iwrestledabearonce are a sonic oddity, and a sure symptom of “the state of music” for a few, but ‘Ruining It For Everyone’ certainly isn’t quite doing what its name suggests, and it’s the closest thing to cacophonic party metal that you’re going to get in 2011.
Save yourself an earful if you like perfect cadence and ABABCB song structure, but fans of DEP, Down I Go and the like will have a few reasons to give it a fair go.