Our Story
Description
Ever wondered what it feels like to get smashed by a ten ton hammer? Or witness a burning plane crash into a building…Face BEAR, an Antwerp-based 4 piece. Conspired in 2010 they set out to bring audible fury to the masses.
About 103 twisted breaks and turns later their first cub saw the burning rays of sunlight in the form of a 5 track MCD ‘ABSTRACTIONS’ which was self released. And later on became digitally available on CONSPIRACY RECORDS.
BEAR spends the rest of 2010 playing numerous shows, including a UK tour with While She Sleeps. The band recieved loads of great reviews in Metal Hammer/Rocksound/Mindview on their MCD and dropping jaws on the way with their high energy driven and destructive live performance. By the end of 2010 their efforts got rewarded with a record deal!
Do you know the feeling of not being sure if you’ve seen that movie before? If BEAR were a movie, they wouldn’t be like that. BEAR are that band you won’t ever forget seeing live. A threat. They come to you, they confront you, they give you the feeling that you are not safe in the audience. And what a rare gift that is, in our safe world of comfort stable mediocrity, where security has become the ultimate value.
By that, BEAR revoke the spirit of great hardcore bands of the 90’s… bands like Catharsis or Gehenna, bands whose raw energy, uncompromising delivery and relentlessly violent performance was as energizing and invigorating
as it was puzzling for the oftentimes baffled audience, who had their teeth caved in by guitars thrown in their direction, and a bearded front man caving through them like a derailed freight train, coming to a flaming halt at the end of the room, behind the mixing desk.
BEAR hail from Antwerp, Belgium’s 2nd largest city and home to a thriving local metal and hardcore scene ever since the 90’s, which is when members of BEAR first met at a local venue where all punk- & hardcore-bands made a stop when touring Europe. This year marks their 10th anniversary as a band. With 3 albums released since on Let it Burn and Basick Records, performances at festivals such as Graspop, Roadburn, Rock Herk, Euroblast, UK Tech Fest, Complextiy Fest and headline tours through Europe and India, the band has made themselves a name in the heavy music underground scene as one of the most punishing live acts out there.
BEAR is VERY proud to announce they signed with LET IT BURN RECORDS, who re-released ABSTRACTIONS which was re-mastered for extra heavyness and fitted with new artwork. The band recorded their debut album DORADUS in March 2011 @ Red Left Hand studio with Sven Jansssens and was mastered by Alan Douches (Converge, Dillinger Escape Plan, Mastodon, … ) @ West West Side Music.
DORADUS hit the stores begin October. Packed with high calibre screaming, raging drums and twisted riffage, it promised to be one of the heaviest albums of 2011. And it delivered. Rated high in Metal Hammer, Aardschok and various international e-zines DORADUS shows the world that BEAR is coming hard.
‘WRECKTHINGS’, the first single of the record, hit the internet a month before the release of DORADUS. Along with an epileptic videoclip it gives a taste of the mayhem to come. Check it out online NOW!!!
In 2012 they opened for Periphery in AB Brussels and later that year for Textures. Also BEAR was one of the few Belgian bands to perform at the widely reknown Groezrock festival. As if that wasn’t enough, they were the special act at Euroblast 2012.
2013: time for a new record. Recorded by Sven Janssens @ RED LEFT HAND STUDIO, mixed by Jochem Jacobs and mastered by Alan Douches, this highly anticipated splinter bomb will hit the stores worldwide October 5th. Released by BASICK RECORDS, who are at the forefront of progressive music, NOUMENON proves to be their most technical yet uncompromising effort to date.
RAIN, the album’s first single and video shows another side of BEAR. Maintaing the nervous energy they are known for, groove elements and dissonant melodies are effortlessly combined with an iery and stylish video. Watch it online now to find out what horrible secret the lead character beholds…
BEAR ///
