Belgian progressive metal/hardcore practitioners BEAR (see our latest special feature HERE) are pleased to unveil their latest video for “Gutter Love.” Currently playing at BrooklynVegan, the track comes by way of the band’s Propaganda full-length, set to drop next month via Pelagic Records.
Propaganda is an album against propaganda; against the manipulative character of communication and product-placement that we face each time we turn on the TV, walk through a supermarket, or tune in to Spotify without a paid subscription. And while blatant ideological propaganda is being camouflaged behind product propaganda within an endless floating spectrum of ever-growing, artificially created needs and demands, ideology is as a matter of fact constantly being reinstated and affirmed. BEAR alludes to all of this with metaphors and artwork referencing historic propaganda and the political practices used by the terrible dictators of the 20th century presented in a pop-art style that is equal parts ironic and iconic. BEAR criticizes propaganda by making Propaganda of their own with their very own aural bombs, symbols, and manifestos.
Comments the band of their latest single,
“‘Gutter Love’ is about being brought to your lowest point by love. Being dragged into the gutter where the feeling turns into an intense hatred. It’s a reminder of the lengths people will go to, to preserve whatever remains of a love that has turned sour.”
Adds BrooklynVegan,
“The song bounces back and forth between prog metal and mile-a-minute hardcore, which are not two things that cross paths too often, but BEAR pull it off.”
BEAR will unleash Propaganda May 8th on CD, LP, and digital formats.
Celebrating their tenth anniversary as a band, BEAR invokes the spirit of great hardcore bands of the ’90s like Catharsis or Gehenna – bands whose raw energy, uncompromising delivery, and relentlessly violent performance was as energizing and invigorating as it was puzzling for the oftentimes baffled audience.
With three albums released since on Let It Burn and Basick Records, performances at festivals such as Graspop, Roadburn, Rock Herk, Euroblast, UK Tech Fest, Complextiy Fest, and headlining tours throughout Europe and India, the band has made themselves a name within the heavy music underground scene as one of the most punishing live acts going.
“The song bounces back and forth between prog metal and mile-a-minute hardcore, which are not two things that cross paths too often, but BEAR pull it off.” — BrooklynVegan
