EatenByBears at Radar
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EatenByBears, Seven Summits
Radar at the Speakeasy, Belfast
20th October 2011
If you see the world in black and white, then bands can fall in to two categories. You have the instantly gratifying, ridiculously addictive and then the polar opposite, slow burning, subtle growers. Both have their qualities and equally their weaknesses. In EatenByBears you have a band that demands your attention from the get go, teases you with delicious, enslaving rhythms but might not have the depth just yet.
By contrast Seven Summits are more of a slow seduction. Find a pair of headphones, a bit of spare time and fall in love, after a couple of listens, with a song like 'What's With All The Lights'. Their live act is a well crafted come-on, but you only get it once, in a noisy bar - Seven Summits don't do first impressions - and unfortunately this play-hard-to-get style didn't work with a Radar audience looking for more of a one night stand. Their set ebbed and flowed, with the lads taking the opportunity to try a few new songs (more synth, more melody) out, but the crowd was not a captive one.
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Headlining the night were self-described math-rock ensemble, EatenByBears, with their newly released album 'Teeth'. After a busy summer on the festival circuit, the four-piece have finally got down to getting everything on record. The sound is a jumble of tika-taka guitaring (Spite Houses), cheeky yodelling (Vanderhoof) and rock-violin (Pythagoraphobia).
The violin can really add an extra dimension on tracks like ‘Pythagoraphobia’, providing a stark contrast to the weaving guitars, but on some of the heavier metal cuts, EatenByBears are almost crossing into Evanescence nu-metal territory - it doesn't work.
Taken on their own, EBB can produce some truly stunning music like on Vanderhoof, but the friction between what seem like two completely different styles of music can come across as confused and jarring on record and live. Their performance though wasn't short of energy, and there's no doubting they're a band to watch out for in the future.Ìý EatenByBears' true sound is merely fingertips away, when they grasp on to it, they might do something really quite special.
Keith Anderson
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