Bear vs Shark -Right Now, You’re In The Best Of Hands. And If Something Isn’t Quite Right, Your Doctor Will Know In A Hurry

Personally, Bear vs. Shark are one of my bigger “musical regrets”. They’ve always been one of those bands I would like and always told myself to check out. I did one day, but it was one of their slower songs, which didn’t really get me in the way I thought it would. Time passes and I give them another chance, picking up their sophomore (and final) release Terrorhawk. To put it simply, I was blown away. They can only be described as frantic energy. Exactly what I like in my music. This moment was bittersweet however, for recently before this, it had announced that they were breaking up. It’s a tragedy, because if the pacing of their songs were any indication of how they were live, these guys would tear you a new anus, shove dynamite inside and blow your ass up!

Trying to avoid too many namedrops, the best way I could describe this album, is a mixture of Fugazi’s more experimental moments and At The Drive-In’s more frantic moments. It parallels from audio chaos, to slower, soulful tunes. The best thing about this is that, despite its extremities, it all flows like one coherent album, most noticeably between the songs M.P.S. and Second. Where the former is a stripped down lo-fi acoustic ballad and the latter takes the same sound, but makes it upbeat, almost poppy.

Bear vs. Shark are universally known as a band who’s sound is nigh impossible to classify without a string of namedrops. They’re emo and hardcore without all of the posturing. They’re completely bi-polar in their approach to music, but make it sound all so incredibly consistent. Their lyrics are abstract and intriguing, which is important. When I say emo, I mean emotional, with lyrics such as “This is a poem, a combination of a sentence broken up to form a rhythm. / You are a poem, little pieces of my senses broken up to form an image.”

With such notable influences, Bear vs. Shark could have easily fallen into the trap of being a “copy-cat” band. Instead they’ve carved out a name for themselves, despite being criminally under appreciated. One of the best bands to emerge from Michigan, hands down.

I highly recommend this album.