Artist: The Bunny The Bear
Album: You Don’t Have Anything Nice To Say…
Genre: Progressive/Trancecore
Label: Victory

Back in the days of yore, Victory Records absolutely ruled the music scene. They helped break bands like Taking Back Sunday, Thursday, Darkest Hour, and Atreyu into the mainstream conscious; they were unstoppable, if you wanted to know the next big band on the scene, you looked at Victory Records. Lately though, the fans have questioned, and downright ridiculed the long-standing label’s newest signings, bands like Design The Skyline have caused an uproar about how the powers that be at the label have clearly lost their minds. My opinion however, is impartial and off the record, mostly because owner Tony Brummel scares me to death. But the consensus of the general public is that Victory’s signings have been rather suspect lately. However, with the Design The Skyline witch hunt in full swing, most people seem to have overlooked another recent signing by Victory Records; The Bunny The Bear, an electronic-metalcore band from Buffalo, NY. I apologize for the obscure genre branding, but there is simply no other way to describe them. Some have used the term “progressive”, but that simply isn’t true. Now, The Bunny The Bear is relatively new on the scene, so I had to do a bit of digging to see what this band was about, and the first thing that I noticed was the masks that each of the two vocalists wear. The clean singer wears a bear mask, and the screamer wears a, you guessed it, bunny mask. Fun. And I feel like noticing them first was precisely the point, so I can remember the masks before I can judge the music. I suppose I can see the motivation to do such a thing though, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out in the metalcore scene, so bands are turning to gimmicks in order to entice new fans, and to make sure people remember them. But when it comes down to it, gimmicks and costumes can never be replaced by good music. Pandering to fans to such an extent is nothing short of insulting, I just can’t respect a band that relies so heavily on a gimmick, in leu of anything resembling quality music. I assumed the band was a least sort of a joke; serious sounding music, made by ridiculous guys, but The Bunny The Bear seem to be a serious band; yet another addition to the ever-expanding bandwagon of metalcore infused with synth and autotuned vocals. The origins of which have become so diluted, that bands have become confused, and aren’t exactly sure what to do with it. The music is made up of two polarizing tones, and making the two sound cohesive is, despite what the genre’s detractors believe, quite difficult. Unfortunately, these guys don’t just have that kind of talent.

The Bunny The Bear are releasing their debut album with Victory Records, ironically titled, If You Don’t Have Anything Nice To Say… on June 28th. This almost seems like tragically comical foreshadowing, I just can’t help myself. The keyboard player is pretty decent, and some of the clean vocal melodies are interesting, even good at times. Their single “Aisle” is a good example of the few standout moments on the album; the chorus is a very interesting listen, and some of the vocal harmonies are rather unique. Truth be told, behind all the vocal processing, the clean vocals from the “bear” are actually very good; a high pitched tone with slightly wavering and uncertain projection, reminiscent of an Alesana like feel, but I’m afraid the impressive clean vocals just aren’t not enough to redeem the album. Aside from the aforementioned clean vocals, the rest of the album isn’t good in any measurable sense; the songs themselves are convoluted and awkward, the instrumental parts inspire an uneasy feeling that the songs were written in 10 minutes, and the synth tones seem to be comprised of random presets that came with the keyboard.

Part of me wants to give this album a zero, but I feel like that may be a bit harsh, they are after all, under one of Victory’s terrifying contracts, so they must have done something right. I just can’t for the life of me figure out what it is. Either way, the band deserves more than a zero simply because of the quality of the clean vocals, unfortunately, it’s really the only element of the album that exhibits any quality. Well I mean, I guess some of the samples are alright. I guess.

Score: 2/10
Review written by: Michael Hogan

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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