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Copies of "Eternal Hibernation" can be bought locally at The Rad Zone, through band members, and at the band's concerts for $10, while digital copies can be purchased on Bandcamp for $7, and song titles below are linked to their streaming Bandcamp copies. Featuring 10 songs clocking in at around 41 minutes in length, let's begin our review with a look at the first song! "Eternal Hibernation" opens with "Dominate", which is also the CD's shortest track. Lyrically about overcoming and dominating complacent and directionless people, the song opens with a familiar opening isolated guitar riff before the whole band kicks into gear, with Nik's clearly enunciated growling vocals easy to hear, unlike at some of their live concerts! Though it lacks some of the technicality of the band's newer originals, it has a consistent groove with nice complimentary guitar work from Mitch & Josh, and strong bass from Justin! Nice hard driving song to kick off the CD, though the quality jumps on solo guitar sections are a bit jarring.
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Song #4 is "Deception", which seems to speak of a personal journey into hate, anger, and opposition of societal norms. Opening suddenly with a mid-paced (and scratchy sounding) instrumental section, this song is well performed instrumentally with solid crashing drums and relentless vocals, but the song has always seemed to be missing a melodic stretch or change in tempo, and to me, mostly glides along without risking anything major. Well performed with nice cohesive guitar chemistry, but it's lacking an extra "something". Then we have "Succumb To Eternity", which is notable as the CD's only album without Nik having a credit for the lyric composition. Bassist Justin Lam handled all lyrics here in this song about wishing death and vengeance upon an enemy, similar in tone to a "Condemned" prequel. Opening with a galloping drum section by Johnny, this song can be repetitive, but it has a strong aggressive melody, nice mix, and memorable mid-chorus guitar licks from Mitch that come through nice and loud! I like the aggression and drumming here, and though it's not as ambitious as some other tracks, it's one of my personal favourites!
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Eighth on "Eternal Hibernation" is "Karma", which is about causality and how one's bad actions lead to bad karma, in violent fashion like on prior songs. Another aggressive song that chugs along with The Bear Hunters' usual ferocity, the song has more of a swing vibe in it's lyric cadence, and it's among the more aggressive and dark songs on the CD, though Mitch's guitar solo really shines late! The song on the whole does feel too long though, and was losing steam before the solo with it's pacing and repetition. Well composed and suitably brutal, but laggy mid-way through. Second last, we have the album's first single "Collapse The Sun", which isn't an anti-summer song, rather about bringing darkness & despair on society. This is one of the shortest songs on the album, but also one of the catchiest via it's structure, guitar melody, and chorus that's easy to sing... I mean, growl along with! Mitch & Josh seem to be having a lot of fun on the riffs and solo here, Justin's bass work is solid, and while it lacks later technicality, this song was a great choice for the first single
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Overall, I enjoyed The Bear Hunters' debut CD, and found it to be a well realized culmination of a long journey to get their first originals out! All of the guys performed well individually, with Nik's crushing vocals, Mitch & Josh's tandem guitar riffs, Justin Lam's excellent bass lines, and Johnny's consistent drumming all coming together very well! To me, this album hit it's best heights when the guys used their melodic and groove metal sides like on "Collapse The Sun", "Succumb To Eternity", and "Casualties of War", which gave an extra kick to their death metal intensity! The production and mix is generally good for a completely independent production, but sometimes, instruments were buried or scratchy, and there was some inconsistency in that department. On the negative side, I would have liked to have seen some of the old clean vocals, more guitar solos than we got, some more lyrical variance, and a reduced ending to "Render This Void", but for a first effort, you can't complain too much.
Some may also wonder why songs like "I Fear No God" and "Transcend Judgment" are absent, but the guys have already established that those are to be on their planned second full length CD, "The Dead Testament". All of that said though, "Eternal Hibernation" is a strong and brutal first effort for The Bear Hunters, and they can only grow from here as they approach their next album plans! Pick up this album A.S.A.P.! I hope you guys liked this month's CD review, but what's coming to the site to kick off 2015 for our reviews? I'm not 100% sure yet, but a new CD from Dafter, Michigan solo project SweetKenny is very possible, as Ken's new solo CD "Slobber" is tentatively scheduled to come out next month. If it comes out as scheduled, that or his newest CD at present "Amazonian" could very well be next, but that all depends on the "Slobber" release, and who knows what else is on the imminent horizon. In any event, stay tuned for updates on our next album review as we hear it, and for our 2014 retrospective post TOMORROW! Thanks everyone!
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