Album Review: Voids by Minus the Bear

It's the first album in five years for a band hailed as kings of reinvention, and a lot's happened in those 60-odd months. Using the time to start from scratch, refine their style, evolve their thinking, swap drummers (it's Kiefer Matthias now in case you didn't know) and head on back to their original record label Suicide Squeeze, it was anyone's guess what direction Minus the Bear would be heading in. And so, breaths have no doubt been held in half-decade respectful anticipation… can the MTB we know and love can still be rooted out amidst the blossoming of their nouveau style? Well fear no more, fans.

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It's been five years since Minus The Bear released their last full-length, 2012's Infinity Overhead. Since then, the band has seemingly been at a loss at how to artistically move forward. There were two album-anniversary nostalgia tours (for They Make Beer Commercials Like This in 2014, Menos El Oso the following year); a B-sides collection and an acoustic album, both feeling like contractual obligations than anything else; and, most shockingly, the departure of drummer and founding member Erin Tate, which if vague social media posts are any indication, was slightly less than amicable.

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The Seattle-based indie rockers' sixth full-length, and their first outing since the departure of longtime kit man Erin Tate, Voids arrives three years after Minus the Bear's B-sides and rarities collection, Lost Loves, and five years after their last proper studio LP, Infinity Overhead. New drummer Kiefer Matthias is more than up to the task. The band's penchant for pairing tight, loopy beats and mathy guitar noodling with sinewy verse melodies that reveal big rousing choruses is on display early with the lovelorn opener "Last Kiss," one of several cuts that mines heartache and missed connections for emotional riches.

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Minus the Bear reunite with their original label, Suicide Squeeze, to release an album that is as far removed from their original material as the band has yet gone. VOIDS is largely composed of lightly angsty guitar rock anthems and pseudo-emo ballads, with little instrumental sophistication to satisfy long-term fans. (www.minusthebear.com) Author rating: 5/10 Name Required Email Required, will not be published URL Remember my personal information Notify me of follow-up comments? Please enter the word you see in the image below: There are no comments for this entry yet.

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Fans have been waiting for five years for Minus The Bear to drop another full-length. Personally, 2012's Infinity Overhead was the record that got me off the wagon, chalking them up to a band that lost their artistic drive. I was a big fan of their work on Suicide Squeeze records, so hearing they were back on that label for Voids reignited that hope in me.

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