Spike Magazine

Polar Bear Club: Clash Battle Guilt Pride (Bridge Nine Records)

Polar Bear Club: Clash Battle Guilt Pride

Reviewed by Eric Saeger

Lots of start-stop goes on here, nullifying the adrenaline effect an all-out barnburner song might have accomplished, but that’s really the only negative, if you want to call it that. This Rochester punk-pop crew flirts with ’70s-arena ideas, their emo angst given a steroid boost from the vocals of Jimmy Stadt, who may – no kidding around – be the most balls-out new singer since Chris Cornell. It can get a little gimmicky, that voice, but it’s a raw, imperative monster, and quite original in its own way; not a death-metal thing, a real rock thing. The production is clean, airy, massive when it’s needed, which is often, really – these guys are to Good Charlotte what Mastodon is to Papa Roach, if you can feel that, next-gen punk with an eye toward much bigger things than the Warped Tour.

Grade: A

December 9, 2011 Filed Under: Eric Saeger, Music Reviews

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