Iwrestledabearonce - Profile

Iwrestledabearonce is an American heavy metal band formed in 2007 in Shreveport, Louisiana, and currently based in Birmingham, Alabama. They have released one EP and two full-length albums, and have toured with acts such as August Burns Red, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Dance Gavin Dance, The Human Abstract, Blessthefall, Fact, Greeley Estates, Sea of Treachery, Enter Shikari, Winds of Plague, All Shall Perish, Vanna and Horse the Band. 

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History

=================================================================== Formation, EP and It's All Happening (2008—2010)

Iwrestledabearonce was founded during 2007 in Shreveport, Louisiana. The origin of the band's name was inspired by a comment that Gary Busey had said on Comedy Central. They signed to Tragic Hero Records and released their debut EP Iwrestledabearonce EP through the label. Afterward, attention was caught by Century Media, to which Iwrestledabearonce signed. The group then recorded and released their debut full-length album It's All Happening on June 2, 2009 in the USA and August 31, 2009 in European stores. In June through September 2008, their single, "Tastes Like Kevin Bacon" appeared on the Sirius Hard Attack radio station "Devils Dozen" list as high as #4 in the 12 most requested songs.

It's All Happening reached #1 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart and #122 on the Billboard 200 chart upon its release in 2009. Iwrestledabearonce then embarked on their second venture outside of the US in October 2009 in-support of It's All Happening. The "2009 Imperial Never Say Die" club tour which was sponsored by Imperial Clothing and Jägermeister in the UK and Europe with Architects, Despised Icon, As Blood Runs Black, Horse the Band, Oceano and The Ghost Inside. In December 2009 they were headliners in a US/Canada tour (The Tour That Stole Christmas) with Miss May I, Inhale Exhale and Of Machines. Iwrestledabearonce had been selected for the 2010 Van's Warped Tour and participated from July 20 until August 15, 2010. During the summer of 2009, the band decided to relocate to Birmingham, Alabama.

In 2010, the band rereleased It's All Happening as a 3-disc special edition that includes the regular album, a remix album, and a DVD. Later, the group released a free 5-track remix EP titled It's All Dubstep.

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Ruining It for Everybody and black metal prank (2011—present)

With the recording of the band's new album, which was revealed to be titled Ruining It for Everyone, guitarist Steven Bradley has stated that the group's new album will embrace black metal, along with the band incorporating the use of corpse paint. He expressed that the entire band agreed that they do not want to be pigeonholed as a band that is suffixed as "core" any longer and the new record will be "90% black metal". Bradley went on to say “We were sick of getting lumped in with ‘scene’ and ‘whatever-core’ bands, so we decided to embrace our roots and just go straight black metal on the new album.

We had to change our image to match ...because of course that's just as important, if not more so, than the music.” The black metal musical shift was later confirmed to be a large practical joke orchestrated by the band and heavy metal website, MetalSucks.

The band's upcoming album, Ruining It for Everybody had a song from the album premiered on the website with the staff confirming that it was all a prank and that the upcoming album "features no actual black metal". The group primarily executed the joke to reveal and parody the over-serious attitude in black metal fans.

After the prank was revealed as false, Bradley later seriously commented on the album's style stating that it's "It's heavier, catchier, and better organized than anything we've done so far. We took a really spastic blend of genres and made it more cohesive."

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Musical Style

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Iwrestledabearonce's music is considered as diverse, this is shown in their use of frequent genre changes within songs, varying between electro, progressive metal, synthpop, avant-garde metal, experimental metal, jazz, and even hillbilly music. They are, however, primarily considered as metalcore and grindcore.

The band attempts to evade catagorisation so significantly that they focus on spasticly blending as many genres as possible. Their song structures are known for chaotic changes in pace, varying between blast beats, breakdowns and then constrasted rapidly by melodic "lounged-out" interludes in the middle of their songs. Influences for their musical style have come from a wide variety of bands including The Dillinger Escape Plan, Radiohead and Björk. Björk, particularly, is noted as being an inspiration for Krysta Cameron's sung vocals.

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Members

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Current members

• Steven Bradley – guitars, keyboards, samples, programming (2007–present)
• Krysta Cameron – lead vocals (2007–present)
• John Ganey – guitars, keyboards, samples, programming (2007–2008, 2009–present)
• Mike Montgomery – drums, backing vocals (2008–present)
• Mike Martin – bass guitar (2009–present)

Former members

• Daniel Andrews – keyboards, samples, programming (2007–2009)
• Dave Branch – bass guitar (2008–2009)
• Mim Cameron – guitars (2008–2009)
• Brian Dozier – bass guitar (2007–2008)
• Ryan Pearson – drums (2007–2008)

===================================================================  Discography

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Albums

• It's All Happening (Century Media, 2009)
• Ruining It for Everybody (Century Media, 2011)

EPs

• Iwrestledabearonce EP (Tragic Hero, 2007)

Remix releases

• It's All Remixed (Century Media, 2010)
• It's All Dubstep (Century Media, 2010)

=================================================================== Videography

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• "Ulrich Firelord: Breaker of Mountains" (2007)
• "Tastes Like Kevin Bacon" (2008)
• "You Ain't No Family" (2009)
• "See You in Shell" (2010)
• "Danger in the Manger" (2010)
• "The Cat's Pajamas" (2010)
• "You Know That Ain’t Them Dogs' Real Voices" (2011)

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Posted in: Band Member Profiles