iwrestledabearonce - 'It's All Happening'

The metal-heavy music and guttural growls of grindcore music result in the type of sound that usually doesn’t appeal to everyone. Because of this, it often has a small but very devoted following, and those that don’t get into it probably never will. iwrestledabearonce has managed to work around this, creating a brutal blend of grindcore, electro and high weirdness that appeals to fans of the most brutal music, and everyone else as well.

With all of their sounds, their music is really hard to classify. Sure, there are tight metallic riffs and death metal growls, but there are also a lot of other items dropped in, sometimes with great force and sometimes quite gently.

Like the band's influences, the song titles on It’s All Happening are a sublime mishmash of pop culture references, random humor and simple oddities, ranging from their most well-known track “Tastes Like Kevin Bacon,” to the Simpsons reference of “I'm Cold And There Are Wolves After Me,” to the what? factor of “Danger In The Manger.” As you would guess, their music has a heavy what? factor as well.

At its core, iwrestledabearonce are true grindcore. The band displays an extreme talent for playing pure instrumental brutality, with frenzied blasts of tight guitars and all-out noise, and the deep death metal growls of Krysta Cameron, the band’s vocalist, barely sound human, let alone like they could be coming from a woman.

But once you strip away the brutality, the things that make It’s All Happening fun, exciting and innovative become apparent. While they may be a true grindcore band for all considered, it’s what they do when they’re not being a grindcore band that carries the appeal.

Songs like “You Ain’t No Family,” which breaks away from the brutality for a bit of electro-laden hoedown, “The Cat’s Pajamas,” a predominantly electronic track that sounds like something Skinny Puppy could have made had they kept getting harder (yet still manages to mix in a bit of accordion) and “Tastes Like Kevin Bacon,” the band’s most well-known track, wherein Cameron sounds positively Bjork-ish – these are the songs that elevate the band from simply rocking incredibly hard to verging on musical genius.

So, while in order to truly appreciate iwrestledabearonce 100 percent, it would be best to love the hardness that is their metallic side, but it’s not 100 percent necessary. The way they mix up their influences and build incredibly complex, yet sometimes silly sounding songs will keep you interested, and even if you detest the heaviest things they do, they become like a surreal gruesome train wreck that you can’t peel your ears from. So you owe it to your musical tastes to give It’s All Happening a few listens. These guys may or may not be the band that guides you into grindcore, but they will definitely broaden your musical horizons.

Essential Listening
“You Ain’t No Family” (Listen/Download)
“The Cat’s Pajamas” (Listen/Download)
“Tastes Like Kevin Bacon” (Listen/Download)

Released: June 2, 2009

Additional Reading:
An interview with Steven Bradley of iwrestledabearonce