I Fight Bears

Groove-laden metalcore from the Welsh home of rock

SOUNDS LIKE:

2000s metalcore and the NWOAHM thrown into a blender

FOR FANS OF:

Avenged Sevenfold, Parkway Drive, Killswitch Engage

LISTEN TO:

Lost The Fight

Fuse the guitar trickery of Killswitch Engage, the infectious grooves of Lamb Of God and the athematic choruses of Parkway Drive together and what do you get? The answer lies with South Wales bruisers I Fight Bears. Doing exactly what it says on the tin: this is music you could use to soundtrack 10 rounds of fisticuffs with ol’ Baloo himself.

“It was one of the things we wanted to convey. Not literally fighting bears, of course, but the aggression in the music – it definitely fits in with that fighting theme!” laughs guitarist

Chris Treharne, talking about the meaning behind this eyebrow-raising choice of a name. “We had tried a few things early on and didn’t have much luck, so two of the guys were watching The Revenant with Leonardo DiCaprio and someone just said, ‘We should call our band I Fight Bears!’ No one had any objections and it just stuck from there on.”

Hailing from Bridgend, the same Welsh town that birthed 21st-century giants Funeral For A Friend and Bullet For My Valentine, the quintet came together several years ago to celebrate and channel their adoration for blistering riffs, huge choruses and dazzling solos. Wearing their influences proudly on their collective sleeves, I Fight Bears have forged a sound that is a no-holds-barred, adrenalinepumping experience.

“At the very

beginning, we sat down and had a discussion with everyone about what kind of music we wanted to write,” says Chris. “The overwhelming consensus was that we want to write music based on the bands we love from each of our own personal music collections. So we combined the list of bands that we all really enjoy and it all just stemmed from that. The likes of Lamb Of God – they groove with big riffs – and Killswitch Engage… we are big fans of technical solos so we had to chuck that into the mix, too.”

With their musical identity firmly set in stone, the attention now turns to I Fight Bears’ debut effort. Having landed on February 16, the self-titled effort from the Welshmen is a mightily energetic record; one jam-packed full of groove and bite with a yin and yang dynamic at its epicentre. Helped along the way by Funeral For A Friend’s Gavin Burrough, who produced their initial two singles, and Bullet For my Valentine’s Michael ‘Padge’ Paget, who chipped in on mixing and mastering, their debut effort really encapsulates the unity and togetherness of their local scene.

“The scene in South Wales is so tight-knit and together. I wouldn’t change it for the world. It is a community in itself and it’s almost like a family; almost everyone in every band knows everyone else and we all chip in together,” explains Chris. “It’s given us reassurance that it is not just your West Coast American bands that do get that far in the industry. You can get homegrown talent and take it to that same level. It gave us the motivation to carry on.”

“IT’S NOT JUST AMERICAN METAL BANDS THAT CAN GO FAR”

I FIGHT BEARS IS OUT NOW