The Bear HuntFallen On Deaf Ears
Indie

- Has the fire gone out of the grunge thing? It’s still the same handful of ‘90’s revivalists that were around a couple of years ago, doing their fuzzy, slacker thing. The ‘movement’ seems to have reached peak grunge a while ago. Not to worry, even if the rest of it collapsed completely, there’s one band with enough angry energy to carry the whole sound by themselves: The Bear Hunt.

If anything, the rage -so effectively sprayed by the huge, deep voice of frontwoman Bec Wilson- is a whole lot more relevant now than the last time The Bear Hunt released a record. I know women have had enough of the bull**** they get handed for quite some time, but thanks to the likes of Rose McGowan, 2017 feels like the year they’ve really had enough of your **** and just aren’t going to take it any more.

It’s been doing the rounds for a while, but it’s hard not to hear a song like Who Made You God? and think, yep, that’s this year’s theme song. “I can’t stand to breathe the same air as you / Please don’t touch me I don’t want you to  / I don’t want to give you what you want / I don’t want to give you what I got.” Oh, and also: “I’m gonna watch you burn.” That’s the stuff, right there.

Musically the band are packing all the same punches as before: heavy stoner chugging played off against sweet grunge pop melodies. Yet there’s also a few new moves on the Fallen On Deaf Ears EP. The aggressive, punky tempo of recent single Name & Shame is intense, bonding a Ramones-ish sound to a fierce anger that the Ramones would’ve been terrified by. In completely the opposite direction Grand Scheme teases out the melancholy, introspective side of the band with its acoustic-driven, bitter self-analysis; it sounds like the sort of self-absorbed epic that The Verve or Oasis would’ve revelled in and, when you think about it, should be an essential element of any true, narcissistic rock goddess’ repertoire.

Anger and smarts don’t generally go together, but here they do. For all that the bile being poured on by the band only gets more intense with time, that doesn’t stop this from being quite a canny EP. Light on its feet, shifting between styles and showing that The Bear Hunt aren’t just maintaining the rage, they’re growing as a band. Oh, but if I haven’t made it clear already, they’re definitely maintaining the rage.

Chris Cobcroft.

The Bear HuntFallen On Deaf Ears

Chris CobcroftNew Releases Show

Slowdiveeverything is alive

Schkeuditzer KreuzNo Life Left

Magic City CounterpointDialogue

Public Image LimitedEnd Of World

SejaHere Is One I Know You Know

DeafcultFuture of Illusion

CorinLux Aeterna

FingerlessLife, Death & Prizes

Jack LadderTall Pop Syndrome

LIVE
100