The illustration of a bear that graces the cover of this limited tour/mailorder-only e.p is very apt. most people have two images of bears; gentle giants making their way through the forest munching on plants and berries or as rage incarnate. You do not want to piss off bears. Likewise when 5ive lay back, they are extremely relaxed, the foraging bear if you will. When they decide to let loose, you better get the hell out of their way. Two of the pieces of “Versus,” “Soma” and “Reso-i” follow I like to call the “5ive template”: They are both loose, improvised sounding pieces that start with clean, droning guitars before building into big wooly crescendos with mountains of fuzz and insistent, almost tribal drumming. Both are “reminiscent” of the spacey instrumental pieces on Kyuss’ Blues For The Red Sun” and “Sky Valley” records. The third song, “Man or marker” is guitar, more restrained. The liner notes indicate that t is an extension of guitarist Ben Carr’s Theory of Abstract Light solo project. As mentioned above, this disc is limited. I have #167/ 200 so I suggest anyone interested in getting their hands on a copy move fast. 8/10 -- Neddal Ayad (25 May, 2005)