Bear vs. Shark - Terrorhawk

[Equal Vision Records]

Imagine a world where Emo wasn't left for dead by The Kids in the late 90's. A world where hip ad execs didn't resurrect the term for a bunch of bad pop bands who had no other wagon to jump on.

In some alternate universe somewhere, where people don't care about money and hair salons, Emo was able to evolve into something....listenable. This is where Bear Vs. Shark comes from. I imagine, they got here by some real life Crisis On Infinite Earths situation. At least that's what I'd like to believe. In this day and age, it's too hard for me to swallow that they're just some dudes from Michigan with no gimmicked looks who are into playing good music and got recognized for that by a bigger record label.

Ok, that's enough with the over the top theatrics and comic nerd references. Bear Vs. Shark are a band that didn't exactly impress me with their debut. I thought the singer's voice was phenomenal, and the music was decent, but nothing memorable to me. Luckily, Terrorhawk is leaps and bounds better than their last. Everything falls perfectly into place and you can really tell they were given a good amount of time to record this. If you've never heard BVS, I'd say they're a little Emo from Days of Yore, a little Post-Hardcore, and a little crunchy Rock. They also wear their Cap'n Jazz influence on their sleeves, so if you were into that band in your more formative days and felt lost ever since all of those types of bands broke up, this is just what you should be looking for.

What really sets this band apart is the vocals. here's a little more over the top theatrics: Marc Paffi is the greatest vocalist in the indie/underground scene THIS DECADE HAS EVER BEEN PRIVILEGED TO LISTEN TO. I am totally James Lipton over this dude. I mean, anything is a relief when you sit around listening to whiny boy temper tantrum vocals constantly, but he goes above and beyond the call of duty. It's not even something I can describe. You have to EXPERIENCE it, man. Like, you can just listen to Marc Paffi, or you can HEAR Marc Paffi. You know what I'm sayin'?

Overall, this is easily the greatest emo record of the year that won't ever be classified as emo by the types of kids who listen to what is considered emo now. Definite top 5 material out of all the dreck I've been (un)fortunate to review this year. '5, 6 Kids' is the song of the summer and should be played on repeat until your shit breaks. The EVR site has it up for free download, so go hit that up, RIGHT NOW.