TBAYN (The Bear Around Your Neck) have the dubious honour of being the first artist to be reviewed here on Clean Sheets, my brand spanking new music blog. The Manchester duo who comprise Guitar/Vocalist Nathaniel Scott and Drummer Jay Temple, have been around for quite a while, with their very first release being traced back to 2012. N.B. I have since learned from Nathaniel that the project started as a solo venture for him before expanding to a two-piece circa 2018.
The band have a plethora of releases to their name and includes a hell of a lot of singles too numerous to list, were I to do so I'd probably still be writing this review come Christmas. Needless to say debut album BIG SHIVER was released in 2016 with the concept described on Bandcamp as “about a child who is absorbed by the faith of satanism”. Since this Damien themed long-player, the band have since continued to put out yet more singles including this two tracker, A Two Faced Prince/With Your Permission to Rot. The artwork is also interesting, evoking the type of imagery that bands such as Karp and the Melvins might have employed early on in their careers, providing what is one of many incentives for me being intrigued enough to cover it in the first place. So, as a way of breaking my Clean Sheets cherry (so to speak), let's dig into this thing.
Opener 'A Two Faced Prince' is the longer of the two tracks at 4:39 and has a really cool Progressive Psychedelic Doom vibe to it, think a little along the lines of bands such as Elder and (ugh) Mastodon, but infinitely more interesting and engaging. There is an infectious trippiness too, with the overall warmth of the band's sound making it so much more approachable than the aloof pretentious ponderousness of Mastodon. There are also slight traces of Om present too, what with the meditative nature/feel of the music (both the chanting at the beginning and the drone infused flavours being testament to this fact) and as a fan of that band, I was certainly more than a little content with this. An excellent track all round. 'With Your Permission to Rot' title gives one the impression that this is a Death Metal influenced track and while traces of that can be detected in some of the aggressive Vocal stylings, its hardly Cannibal Corpse. Instead it takes more of a Sludgier Noise-Rock route coming across like a much meaner version of the aforementioned Karp and Melvins. The outright heaviness and metallic nature of the track provides a nice contrast to its predecessor and demonstrates that the band are more than capable of rocking out and kicking ass with the best of them. A hell of a lot of fun.
So there you are, a two track taster and hopefully a preview of what we can potentially expect on the next full-length record (whenever that may be). The Bear Around Your Neck illustrate that there is more to Manchester than just The Smiths, Joy Division, New Order, The Stone Roses and Oasis, an actively thriving music scene exists and is one I eventually hope to explore further once I relocate from the sleepy environs of rural Lancashire (Lancaster). In the short-term I hope to catch them, time and funds permitting, at the In A Nutshell festival happening at Fell Foot Woods in Ulverston in May, where they will be performing alongside fellow Manc favourites of mine She The Throne.
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