Albums

Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth

Craig Broad 24/03/2010

Rating: 4/5

Bear In Heaven started their musical release career in 2003 with their debut offering, an EP entitled Tunes Next Door To Songs. Four years passed before they released their debut full length album Red Bloom of the Boom and in these four years, they changed steadily from a six piece band, to a five piece and then finally to a four piece. Beast Rest Forth Mouth, their lates,t sees Bear In Heaven as a cohesive unit, touching on many genres but never alienating both their old fans and new ones to come.

From the moment 'Beast In Peace' touches your ears, it is easy to figure out where Bear In Heaven are going. Heavily inspired by an older style of music, their roots happily placed in both the seventies and the eighties, every song is driven with frantic but drawn in drumming that keeps your foot tapping long after the drum rolls have ceased. Tracks like 'Wholehearted Mess' and 'You Do You' are well rooted in an electronic psychedelic area with racing samples at the forefront of the track, not in a modern day pop way but more in an eighties sense, where everything has a dark undertone and sounds utterly honest. Also impressive is Jon Philpots use of vocals, in 'Beast In Peace' he is more than happy to haunt the listener with drawn out melodies while in 'Dust Cloud', the vocals bounce along much in time and melody with the quirky bass line, a very different approach for a modern day band. Ultimately, the best part of Beast Rest Forth Mouth is that you have no idea where it is going to venture next, Bear In Heaven have obviously settled on a sound but it is so structurally and aesthetically interesting that each song offers its own different take on an approach to music.

When I started writing this review, I wasn't entirely sure as to whether I actually like Bear In Heaven and in all honesty, I am still not a hundred percent sure. What I am sure of however, is that in a sea of shit, over-rated and uninteresting bands, here are a collection of musicians prepared to take risks and do something different and for that alone, I find this release endearing.

Bear In Heaven Myspace Page