The Bear Essentials...

Headless Kross - Bear (2011)

Ooooooh, now all the Scots come out the woodwork eh? With all their deep fried Mars bars, kilts and impressively executed doom/sludge. Where have they all been hiding for the last year and a month!? Thats rhetorical by the way, I know the answer is bloody Scotland. But in all fairness the guys only came together about a year ago. They cranked out this little beauty back in August and somehow managed to fly completely under our radar since. None the less, here it is, debut album Bear, and you're somehow able to pull yourself away from conceiving the shear amount of time and effort that went into the cover art work then you're in for a treat.
Going against the grain of the stereotypical sludge band the trio have managed to adopt a few more little traits and nuances from other genres. With tastes of thrash and southern rock style solos, Unsane esque hardcore and even a little post metal ambiance the Kross have managed to forge a pretty sublime little album here. It's a well overdue break from the norm. Yeah we all love the likes of Bongzilla, Cult Of Luna or Omega Massif they're all exceptional at what they do. But I always feel a bands true talent lies in being able to successfully merge, mix and twist genres into something new and unique, and thats what the three Glaswegians have done here. Maybe they could have done with making those tortured vocals and screams a little more prominent, but all in all they've hit the nail firmly on the head.
So if you love your stoner doom, angry, dirty, down tuned and smattered with catchy riffs you will love this album. I guarantee it!

For Fans Of; Iron Monkey, Eyehategod, Wolves In The Throne Room, Buzz*oven, Khanate

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Bear (320kbps)