Bear - Propaganda Review

Djent really gets a bad rap. While many of the genre's frontrunners do not particularly tickle my fancy, groups like Periphery and SikTh have always struck the perfect balance between heavy, melodic, and intricately written. However, these groups vary far from the bands whose rise in popularity in the 2000s made a large impact on the sound and general vibe of the 'djent' sound. While Meshuggah's influence has and will always exist as its own little pocket dimension where this sound can roam free, if not redundantly, its artists like After the Burial, Veil of Maya, and Within The Ruins that have shaped modern deathcore, and subsequently djent, to a boilerplate formula: Extremely thumpy, with lots of breakdowns, and traditional melodic metalcore songwriting. the sound has been passed over a genre completely by elitist metal media and occupies a strange place in the ever interlocking hardcore and metal genre tags. 

Bear is like Car Bomb with less Deftones influence, which is replaced by a strange hodgepodge of metal subgenres and hardcore. After a slew of poorly rated releases (thank the internet for those), the Belgian based four-piece releases Propaganda last week on Pelagic Records and claims that "the band has made themselves a name in the heavy music underground scene as one of the most punishing live acts out there." While I have yet to find a single live video of the band, I will give them the benefit of the doubt and judge them for their studio recordings rather than their supposed live brutality. This release is strange to listen to from an objective standpoint, and I find difficulty in attempting to dissect it. While on the one hand, Bear's sound is a subversive homage to modern metalcore, it is also strangely unique in the hardcore meets djenty songwriting.  

Take one of the singles from this release, "Gutter Love": Begining with a riff reminiscent of 90s nu-metal that suddenly, and briefly, changes to a melodic death metal section that evolves into a spastic hardcore rhythm, while a punchy and thumpy bassline permeates and drives the track throughout its shifting styles. The track also utilizes its metalcore and deathcore roots with the inclusion of breakdowns multiple times throughout the track, but always returns to the brutal hardcore that the chorus uses. Both compositionally and sonically, it is a very interesting track. But at the same time, it exudes the campiness and stereotypes that its parent genres are infamous for: It is extremely straightforward, sounds too modern for its own good, and one could argue that it sounds similar to every other song on the record.

This is the confusing dilemma of this record. Propaganda’s 41-minute runtime does sound like every other later 2000s metalcore album, but it is so different.  While songs like “Dissolve Dissipate” and the title track, “Propaganda,” are pretty cut-and-dry as far as modern songwriting goes, they both include very strange clean sections that do not match their album’s tone at all, yet each are executed with great precision. The first’s chorus is a thrashy call and response section from the nasal clean of vocalist Maarten Alberechts while a feedback-laden rock instrumental plays underneath. The second is very Deftones inspired, which many modern groups similar to Bear use, but the uniqueness here is very perplexing as the dissonance used is in tonality rather than tone. “Red Throne” is a deathcore track infested with thrashy sensibilities and mathcore licks, while “Engine” has a riff taken right out of the Insomnium playbook except its thrown onto a metalcore platter and shaken until it works for the band’s drum part.

I keep saying that this album is confusing to listen to, and that is because I really enjoy spinning it’s 12 tracks. The performances are extremely tight, the song structures original and hooks engaging. However, something is off. Maybe it that a heavy melodic metalcore album hasn’t really ever given me this feeling, or maybe this is a new form of metalcore-influenced prog that my ears are not used to hearing, but Bear is something else; something so far familiar yet not at the same time, and this is the perfect description of Propaganda. Do I think this is a groundbreaking album? No, I do not. But this album is pretty unrelentless in its confidence and “experimentation.” Do not fool yourself; this is a modern progressive metalcore album, so for those who have zero interest in this subgenre, I warn you. This album is basically filled with djenty riffs and melodic hooks. But for those looking for an interesting experience in the otherwise stale genre, give this a listen – I doubt you will know how to react.

Final Rating: Seriously, I haven’t been this torn on whether an album is good or not in a while

Favorite Tracks: “Kuma,” “Gutter Love,” “Red Throne”

FFO: Loathe, Car Bomb, literally anything off Basick Records.

Track List:

1.     “Dissolve Dissipate”

2.     “Propaganda”

3.     “Obey”

4.     “Apollo’s Heist”

5.     “Red Throne”

6.     “Mite”

7.     “Gutter Love”

8.     “Stigmata”

9.     “The Ram”

10.  “Flares”

11.  “Engine”

12.  “Kuma”

You can support the band on their Bandcamp.