Thwomp in the House of Boo - This is the Hunger of Bears

In today's world of music, it's rare to hear a band with originality. The whole needle in the haystack metaphor comes to mind when looking through the stacks upon stacks of carbon copy, MySpace friendly bands whose songs run together from chug, to sing, to 4x4, to puberty. It's a shame to say too, because there are a handful of bands out there trying to develop their own substance, but unfortunately, so much is taken away from them by teensters waiting to get signed by the next guy living on his mother's couch.

Fortunately enough though, look no further. Out of the rolling hills of Verona Kentucky comes a Mario named band called Thwomp in the House of Boo, or TITHOB for short. Their debut, This is the Hunger of Bears came out some time ago, but for the sake of people who care about music's sanity, I figured I would throw a review of their record at you.

From start to finish, this is a spazzy heavy outlet that will leave you scratching your head (in a good way) wondering where you've just been for the last half hour. Though the band takes a undertone metalcore outline of heavy chugs and growling vocals as the basis of their musical ADD formula, they quickly flip it on its backside to redefine the sound.

The record is at its very core a heavy music record, however it draws bits and pieces of Sonic Youth esque distortion to give it a tossed salad type of feel. Though you may be listening to what sounds like some sort rock riff such as the beginning of "All Day Grillet" the records first actual song, you find yourself amidst an atmosphere of screaming noise and distortion later on, somewhat reminiscent of early Post-Hardcore bands such as Heroin, Antioch Arrow, or even genre defining At The Drive-In.

The band utilize a sense of noise among their breed of rock/post hardcore ideas very well, and perhaps the most exciting part of this record, is how young the band is in their musical endeavors. Great bands progress, but even this record has such a sense of outward progression already.

The only low points on this record lie in the recording, which you can't really expect much of on a basically independent band's debut album. The guitar tones are quite crunchy, but the mix itself is actually decent, and the mastering is perfect. The other drawback could be the vocals. At times, the deep growling seems a bit out of place for this band, but hey, you can't really knock a band pushing the boundaries of originality.

This record is a must have for fans of early post-hardcore, even people growing listening to bands like Thursday, considering TITHOB uses quite a bit of aggresive rock style riffs.

FINAL GRADE: A-