Alloy Matt

Review: The Bunny The Bear - If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say…

Some of my readers may recall that I did a review for The Bunny The Bear’s Self-Titled album a couple of months ago, and that I gave it a good review and enjoyed the album immensely. Well, I have a follow up for that which is this review for their new album that just came out a couple weeks ago.

It seems like The Bunny The Bear went through some changes between these 2 albums, and I would like to start by discussing the differences I have found.

The production value has gone up considerably! I know for a fact that the bands primary composer, The Bunny, will be stoked about my saying so because I know he is a perfectionist when it comes to such things. In fact, the first single from the album, “Aisle,” has had changes made to it between the release of the video for the song and the release of the album. That speaks volumes to me about the bands desire to sound as great as possible.

They did change their sound to some extent. The last album had keys/samples, just as this one does. However, it seemed to me that the function of the keys/samples went from something that sounded kind of erratic and was meant to keep you guessing on the last album, to a more “dancey” style of keys/samples. This doesn’t ruffle my feathers at all, seeing as I enjoy both sounds. Although, it might cause other critics to look down on them as their use of keys/samples on the Self-Titled album would be seen as more progressive and this new use of keys/samples is more, I hate to say it like this, but, trendy. In my mind, this album incorporates the use of both stylings very effectively, as a metal head that is pretty open minded, I enjoy it a lot! Something that should be mentioned is that they did not completely do away with the spazzy, proggy keys/samples, simply incorporated some of the styles that seem to be rising in popularity in the current metalcore and deathcore scenes which I believe will broaden their audience a bit without completely losing the previously existing fan base. It’s a nice blend. In a band where the primary instrumentation is in the keys/samples, this is just the way its going to go.

Now I’m going to move on to the vocal stylings of Bunny and Bear. They still have that Coheed and Cambria clean vocal element, as well as, the punk-ish yelling and growling, but all those elements have moved past their previous versions into a version of themselves with much more range and depth. Including a very impressive deep low growl that could compete with many of the deathcore titans out there right now.

The first two tracks, Aisle and Ocean Floor, excluding the intro, are the driving forces of the album, to me, but there is a lot of appeal in the almost ballad like qualities of the next song with a heavy hitter to follow it up. The Bunny The Bear spend the rest of the record swapping between more melodic stuff and heavier tunes. I can certainly appreciate what they are doing on this record.

If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say… is a great album and destroys their Self-Titled when it comes to the production value, but isn’t as good as the self-titled, in this reviewers eyes anyway. If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say… feels a bit more tame to me. I really enjoyed Self-Titled and I feel like The Bunny The Bear went another direction with this one. Don’t get me wrong… this is starting to sound like a negative review, but that’s not the case. I am just stating that I preferred Self-Titled over this newest album. This album still keeps you guessing. You can still hear that Iwrestledabearonce and Arsonists Get All The Girls sound, but now there might be a little bit of Asking Alexandria thrown into the mix.

This is a great album. I would definitely recommend it to anyone that in a record store that is on-the-fence about picking it up, as well as anyone reading this post. Great record guys! Make sure you head over to their various pages (links provided below) and get all the info on their upcoming tour with Deception of a Ghost, who was featured on this blog not that long ago as well.

8/10

If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say… Tracklist:

01. Prelude to Pregnancy
02. Aisle
03. Ocean Floor
04. C’est Pas Si Lion
05. It’s a Long Way from the Esophagus to the Ovaries
06. Lust Touch Seed
07. 396.17 
08. Rough Eyes
09. Sympathy for the Queen of Lies
10. Alley
11. Path

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