I Fight Bears, who merge modern Metalcore and rib-crushing, no-holds-barred Heavy Metal, have emerged from the South Wales Grand Final of Metal 2 The Masses with a slot on the New Blood Stage at this year’s Bloodstock Open Air Festival.
Held at the Fuel Rock Club in Cardiff earlier this month, six bands competed, with two additional performances from previous winners. Simon Hall, founder of Metal 2 The Masses, described I Fight Bears as “one of the tightest bands I’ve seen.”
Bloodstock 2022
“It’s a surreal experience,” the band said, “but we don’t consider ourselves ‘winners’ in the traditional sense. We are the chosen representation of the exceptional South Wales Metal community. We entered the competition with the best intentions, but no idealistic views of a particular outcome.”
I Fight Bears released their self-titled debut album in 2018, which received encouraging comparisons to Lamb Of God, Parkway Drive, and Killswitch Engage. The five-track EP, Liberosis, was released in June.
“M2TM has always been a staple institution and a culmination of everything the scene has to offer. What better way to promote our new EP than to share it with that community that has supported us over the years?
“We were rewarded with the highest possible recognition for that by the fans, and by the judges, and we intend to hit the New Blood stage hard.”
The latest single, Beacon, is Stan Lee inspired, with artwork created by bassist/clean vocalist Drew Hamley. “Liberosis is a culmination of 2-3 years’ work, demoing, re-writing and re-tooling these 5 songs to a place we are all happy with,” Drew said. “For us this EP is a step in a new and fresh direction, shifting the overall timbre and re-imagining what I Fight Bears means as a band moving forward.”
Bloodstock 2022 will be held over the long weekend of 11-14 August 2022. MetalTalk’s Liz Medhurst, John Inglis and Paul Monkhouse will be reporting from Catton Park.
#boa22. For more information visit bloodstock.uk.com You can view a map of Bloodstock at bloodstock.uk.com/bloodstock_map.jpg
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