The new EP Anhedonia from Belgian progressive metal peddlers BEAR is a real unfiltered helping of aggression with a healthy side order of hardcore-tinged riffing, slamming drums, and mathcore leads. It’s a step in a different direction from their usual affair, with much more aggression and in-your-face, outright metal, combined with the stylings of bands like Every Time I Die and Dillinger Escape Plan. Interestingly, this whole EP was recorded live, in a studio, no click tracks, no backing tracks, just straight up tekkers and whole band vibes, you’ve got to love it when bands go old skool like this. This also gives Anhedonia a sense of vitality throughout, without really losing any of the polish that is present from their previous records.
“Lacerate,” a thinly veiled love letter to American Head Charge, is the standout track here, its dark Nu Metal stylings grind over you for four minutes of delightfully poised songwriting magic. It’s like BEAR decided to take everything that’s good from that era and distil it into a perfect representation of the genre; all the tropes and hooks are there. Korn, Deftones, and Coal Chamber are brought to mind with the highly focused assault and brutal aggression that’s peppered throughout the whole record.
“Each note struck, each drum skin smacked feels like it’s pushing back against the dark melodies and haywire mathcore esque lead work. ”
Guitarist James Falck says that this EP represents a sort of therapy for him, and this album is the distillation of life experiences, trauma and perseverance, an immovable monolith in the face of whatever reality decides to throw at us, and boy does it feel like it. Each note struck, each drum skin smacked, feels like it’s pushing back against the dark melodies and haywire mathcore-esque lead work.
Despite its slight sidestep from their usual bag of tricks, Adhedonia doesn’t miss. In fact, it hits like a truck over a succinct 5-track package, that leaves you wanting more, so much so it ends almost too quickly. It will be interesting to see if this is a path that BEAR decide to take on a more permanent basis. They definitely have the chops to do it. Sometimes, these things don’t work out when bands try out new things, but this is definitely not the case here. BEAR have slayed here, and long may it continue.