Artist: Minus The Bear
Album: Infinity
Overhead
Label: Dangerbird
Records
Release Date: August
28th, 2012
Review by: Sean
Kayden
“Infinity Overhead” is the fifth studio
album from progressive rock adherents Minus The Bear. With this latest
endeavor, the five-piece band travels back to their signature sound that
propelled their career at the start of the millennium. Their preceding 2010
tenuously named LP, “Omni” was driven by a much deeper electronic sound that
the band had ever dabbled with in the stretch of their decade long career. It
was a noble effort seeing how the band took a chance by elaborating on their previously
established multifaceted style. With a felicitously titled record and attempting
to transcend the boundaries of their unflagging talents, Minus The Bear find
themselves ambitiously compelled to create what they’ve intended to be their
best material to date. I’m not quite sure if they set their sights too high
since “Infinity Overhead” isn’t the band’s finest hour, but certainly not one
to starkly dismiss either.
“Steel and Blood” kicks the album
off in grand fashion. It’s smooth with its fuzzy snyths and familiar Minus The
Bear guitar riffs yet also vehemently in your face. The lyrics are dark too
describing a ghastly car crash with an overflow of blood at the forefront. At
least singer Jake Snider expresses the line, “I’ll be by your bedside” to turn
the song into more of a human connection piece. “Lies and Eyes” follows and it
doesn’t disappoint. It’s a sexually and ill-faded romance motivated pop treat
that is beautifully executed with guitars interwoven with the keyboards that
create this everlasting infectious sound. With an opening line such as “He
regrets having no regrets,” you know you’re in for something special. The song
just works on all accounts. “Diamond Lighting” is in vein of classic Minus The
Bear. It’s a soaring composition that flows like a steady stream and has the
occasional heavy tide too. Definitely the dreamier tune off the record,
“Diamond Lighting” will please strong enthusiasts of the band. “Listing” is the
unequivocally strongest song from “Infinity Overhead”. The song pulls you in
and doesn’t let go. It’s a reflective tune that has that signature Minus The
Bear touch to just explode into something unworldly. Sometimes you have to take
a moment to realize just how great these guys are as a core group of musicians.
“Heaven is a Ghost Town” is very melodic while weaving in and out of slow,
cautious cadence then ultimately unraveling into a sharper, pulsating showcase.
It seems like Minus The Bear were
back in such a way to change the game or at least the game they play. However,
unfortunately with such a dominant opening half of significance and audacious
musical decisions, the band somehow loses all the momentum with a vacant,
directionless second half. It’s not dreadful, but the flow of the record is
interrupted so abruptly that the feeling you once had quickly diminishes. These
final songs play off so nonchalantly and aloof that listeners can easily find
themselves bored by the lack of surprises or thrills the band initially supplied
with the first handful of songs. Minus The Bear has never been a band of
catharsis, yet with “Zeroes,” “Lonely Gun,” and “Cold Company” the deficiency
of anything emotionally affecting or thought-provoking is clearly missing. In
the end, “Infinity Overhead” isn’t as substantially grand or glorious as it
could have very well been, but where it does shine, you’ll be hard pressed to
find any darkness in sight.
Grade: 7.3 out of 10
“Lies and Eyes”,
“Diamond Lightning”, “Listing”, “Heaven is a Ghost Town”
Published by Mountain Views News on September 15th, 2012
http://mtnviewsnews.com/v06/htm/n37/p11.htm
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