iwrestledabearonce - It's All Happening [LP - Purple]

2009 debut album on Century Media Records from the electro-metal-trip-hop-dance-jazz pioneers from Shreveport, LA, IWRESTLEDABEARONCE, produced by Ryan Boesch (Norma Jean). Get your booties on because metal just got way more interesting. Iwrestledabearonce combines elements of brutal metal, hardcore and mathcore with some ambient music and electro beats and a good dose of humor. This means spastic, hectic music with a lot of unexpected twists and turns. The record is loaded with cool beats and samples, adding to the mayhem even more. Topping off all this noise are female vocals that range from grunts to screams, but also clean sung passages which makes the whole of the band a bit poppy, be it that there are some heavy as &%#@ breakdowns and bashing metal parts. It looks like there is fun for everyone on It’s All Happening! The album segues from guitarists Steven Bradley and John Ganey's syncopated spastic riffs to dance-floor-ready rhythms and beats courtesy of bassist Mike "Rickshaw" Martin and drummer Mikey Montgomery. Above this explosion of styles, vocalist Krysta Cameron screams with precise brutality, before crooning out hauntingly ethereal passages. On cuts like "Danger in the Manger" and "You Ain't No Family," her voice swings like a sledgehammer from bludgeoning to beautiful. The band's charm lies in their sonic sense of ADD — catapulting "The Cat's Pajamas" and "Pazuzu For The Win" from battle-ready math metal to danceable hip-hop doused in jazz for good measure.

This RSD Black Friday release includes a 12x12 full color insert and a 12x18 band poster.