Band: BEARxHUG
From: Zagreb, Croatia
Their formation story:
(Goran, guitar): "Lovro (vocals) and I put an ad on Instagram for a band that would play fast but none of the Nails-adjacent BS. The lineup was completed within a few weeks, in three months we played our first gig, and in five months we released our first EP."
Their sound in their own words:
"In all honesty, we often try to sound like a specific other band, but as much as we try, we always fail in some new and unexpected way. If you listen to some of our songs carefully, you can recognize that the song was intended to sound exactly like, for example, Youth of Today, but it ended as something else entirely.
"As any self-respecting hardcore band knows, the most fun one can get is making songs around your technical limitations. The good news is that we can play whatever we want—it will always sound like BEARxHUG.
"Since we are all old as shit, we listen to a wide range of styles, from old-school hardcore through raw black metal to even the dumbest slam death metal. Me (guitar) and drummer Gajo are, in essence, youth crew fans (with a combined age of 92 years), but all of us can agree that bands like Coke Bust and Dystopia kick ass."
Latest release info:
"We will try to put out one EP every year. This one is 13 songs in 9 minutes. We tried our best. I even included a guitar pedal this time. Shades of Spazz and Chain of Strength plus one riff that somehow sounds a lot like [Napalm Death song] 'Suffer the Children.'"
Future plans:
"We are tireless and already deep into composing new material. We will try to expand our touring reach in the next year."
What other bands from their region should we check out?
"Zagreb's scene is as vital and as tight as ever. Fans of Heresy should check out UBT. For buzzsaw hardcore, go to PLASTIKA or KILLING YIELD. The best hardcore band in the region is Belgrade's STATICO, with an all-star lineup from the legendary BGHC bands from the '90s onward. For a palate cleanse, please check out the dungeon synth vibes of KMET."
BEARxHUG on social media: Instagram
Tagged: bearxhug
