The third album Refuse This Gift from Bear Claw is one of two records that ended up being part of a double whammy of releases from Sickroom Records just recently for me. Paired up, at least in my mind, with the excellent Conformists record (which you can find a couple posts below) Bear Claw gives a bit more of a traditional spin on the Chicago math/noise-rock sound compared to their label mates. With their third album Refuse This Gift the band hasn’t deviated all that much from their previous work, although the vocals and song structure have taken a bit of a shift into a slightly more melodic area that puts an interesting twist on a familiar sound. Still working with the two bassists and drummer setup, Bear Claw manage to continue on delivering a fairly packed punch despite what some might consider an ease in their stance. You may think that the band sounds a bit more even keeled these days, although if you take one look at the lyrics you’ll find that the band is still plenty annoyed by plenty of things and they express it in their usual style of tongue in cheek sarcasm here on Refuse This Gift. Personally I really enjoy the direction that the band took with this record, combining a relatively strong bit of groove with the rougher violent jolts that the band was known for in their previous material. And due to that, Refuse This Gift has the most replay value out of any of their releases thus far. This is some fantastic stuff from this continually impressive outfit.