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This post was initially planned to be a gig review for "Birds in Row", but I masterfully failed to go to that show, so it's back to the drawing board for now. However expect a gig writeup soon, since I will be going to both "Nux Vomica" and "Jeniferever" shows, really looking forward to attend those and write about them. Until then, brace yourself for an amazing ten inch.
The split I'm gonna write about is old by now and you all probably know about it already. Despite that I really want to write some words for it, since James from "Todos" asked me to do so and I also have a wish to try and attract more people to this record. That being said, you can realize that I really fell in love with this release. I have heard of "Todos Caeran" before and I wrote about their EP already (if you missed it, it is found here), expecting this to be equally good, but it completely struck me with my guard down. Ok, got carried away now, lets take it step by step.
"Bears" are first in line on this split, opening up with the song "A Boy in Paris". To be completely honest, I have bumped into their name a lot of times in the past, but I never really got to the point where I would sit down and listen. The very moment their song started pouring through my speakers I realized how much of a mistake I made for not giving them a chance earlier. They manage to create a certain mood in the listener with their tunes, which I really can't define quite yet. It keeps swinging me between some completely depressive and dark state to...I don't know, somewhat hopeful. That probably sounds stupid, but their music does put you into a specific place and I love it when you just can't put your finger on it. Also, the cool thing here is that "Bears" somehow bend time so to speak, since their three something minute songs actually sounds more epic and you feel like they last something like five or six minutes.
Ok, I think most of you stopped reading this by now, so those of you who have the energy to stick around until the end I'll try to sound more reasonable. Describing the very sound of "Bears" is a tough job, but I would try and say that you should imagine a mix of "Wolves" and "Captain, Your Ship Is Sinking!". Yes, two quite amazing bands and "Bears" seem to hold their own. Influenced by them or not, they really have a unique sound and excellent playing skills. Composition is superb, with quite a lot of interesting melody shifts, tempo changes and peculiar play stiles. I'm really glad to hear a band of this caliber come out of Australia, since at times the "down under" screamo gets bashed by people saying their bands sound way too copy/paste between one another. Complete nonsense if you ask me, so I would really like to see someone have something to say about this being a "typical" band. The only thing that I consider to be a small flaw is the vocal. The vocal performance is great, don't get me wrong, it is that I would just like to hear its volume increase more. Maybe the band wanted to blend the vocals more with the rest of the instruments, but I think that it should be a bit more above the rest, like on the "Todos" side of the split.
Speaking of which, "Todos Caeran" open their side of the split with "Aspirations". As I wrote above, I love this band ever since I heard their EP last year, but this just blew me away. I was expecting some improvements or whatever, but I really couldn't imagine that they advanced so much. First of all, their music is much more aggressive and a lot heavier on the listener than the EP. The very recording is a lot more better than on their previous release and that really puts their music on a whole new level. It is much louder and the sound is clear, so despite all the chaos bashing around, you get to hear everything. I literally spent more than half an hour repeating their two songs just to focus on every instrument present. Their style of composition really changed as well and I love how they gave all members of the band a certain part of a song where only that one member comes in the spotlight. For instance, you have a moment in "Aspirations" where the guitar literally steps up and performs some quite epic playing. Also, I remember that the first thing that drew me toward "Todos Caeran" was the vocal. Luckily, it didn't deteriorate in quality, the amazing raspy screaming even evolved a bit to be much better. As I mentioned already, it sounds a bit above the rest of the band and it just splashes a lot of chaos into their music.
Not really satisfied with what I wrote about this split, probably because I got my brain all twisted with how good the split is. In any case, like this review or not, you should absolutely check out this release and keep an eye on these two bands. You can check out and get in touch with Bears via their myspace here, though I am not sure how often they update their page, and with Todos Caeran also via myspace here. Enjoy!
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