Iwrestledabearonce don't play by the rules.
If that's what you're expecting from the band's sophomore album, Ruining It For Everybody, perhaps you should go play in traffic. However, if you're down for a little danger, this will be your soundtrack.
The fearless five-some from Shreveport, LA still bludgeons with the best of them. In fact, their psychotic polyrhythmic groove fuels Ruining It For Everybody. Simultaneously, Iwrestledabearonce completely embrace their inner Radiohead, elegantly exorcising eerie emotion via singer Krysta Cameron. She's not Regan in The Exorcist, but she is letting the demons out to play.
Breakneck guitar battery subsides during a haunting chorus on the album's first single, "Karate Nipples." Elsewhere on "Next Visible Delicious," glitchy electronics derail into a vaudevillian death metal delirium. Closing track "Button It Up" ventures into raw, real darkness. Iwrestledabearonce have ruined heavy music, because no one can compete with them now.
Bradley encapsulates the band's sound this time around. "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."
Iwrestledabearonce dove headfirst into writing and recording Ruining It For Everybody after a marathon of touring in support of their 2009 Century Media Records debut It's All Happening. The album debuted at No. 121 on the Billboard Top 200, moving 4,300 copies during its first week and landing at No. 1 on the Heatseekers chart. In 2010, they followed it up with a CD/DVD entitled It's All Remixed, featuring remixes, videos, and so much more. No venue was safe when the band toured with the likes of everyone from Dillinger Escape Plan to August Burns Red and smashed through summer on the Vans Warped Tour.
All of that time on the road opened the door for the next phase of Iwrestledabearonce's burgeoning career. "The album is another story and chapter in my life," reveals Cameron. "A lot has happened since the release of our debut, and it means a lot to me that I get to express my thoughts, beliefs, and feelings through this album."
She and her bandmates don't hold anything back either. The band's spazzy fusion of metal, grindcore, jazz, electronica, and show-tunes has been consolidated into one violently vibrant assault on "Karate Nipples." For Cameron, the song's meaning is two-fold. "SLUGGO [producer] told us he wouldn't do any more remixes for us if we didn't title a song after the name he gave Ricky—'Karate Nipples.' So that's one reason. It's also a very personal story for me, and you can feel it in the lyrics."
Iwrestledabearonce don't shroud anything in mystery, and they're doing exactly what they want. For Bradley, the title serves as the ultimate middle finger to expectations, conventions, and the norm.
"We do whatever the fuck we want, and that normally ends up pissing people off," he declares. "We like to take elements from every style and genre and ruin them for everybody."
For Cameron, that deconstruction includes delving deeper than your average metal singer. On "Next Visible Delicious", she serves up a warning about the dangers of not thinking for oneself. "People believe anything fed to them if they are told by someone with power that it's truth. Your head will spin trying to rationalize religion, politics, and environment. The song references mother nature becoming fed up with our ways and swallowing us whole. It's a warning of our long-awaited Armageddon. No, not the movie…"
The intensity inherent within Ruining It For Everybody will undoubtedly be replicated on stages worldwide when the band hits the road. About their live show, Bradley comments, "We continue to break more stuff and have even more fun. Also, we have a pretty insane light show now that we always bring with us so that definitely makes it a much more entertaining show."
The music still shines the most, especially on songs like album finale, "Button It Up." It's an expansive hymn of destruction catapulted to transcendent heights by Cameron's vocals. "It's a dark song," the singer reveals. "It tells the tale of a girl who has her life taken from her. I'd read about young girls exploiting their bodies on the Internet and lying about their ages. The next thing you know, they go missing, are raped, and found dead. It's terrifying."
However, Iwrestledabearonce continue to offer a release and reprieve from all of the world's madness. They've created something that listeners can clench onto tightly. Cameron concludes, "I want fans to feel like they can find something to relate to and that this is music to get them through a bad day or situation in their lives. I also hope they find something new about us that they like."
Every rule will be broken in the process…
— Rick Florino, May 2011