The Void

Despite being a band that prides itself with wearing their inspirations on their sleeves, Beardfish’s style has usually been pretty consistent throughout their careers. Sometimes they may change lyrically, but usually you can tell a Beardfish album at a glance. However, their 2012 release of The Void, is the sole exception.

This is one of the only times they ever went metal, and it is certainly an interesting prospect. Prog metal around 2012 was kind of hitting big, so a good number of bands were employing it in their styles. But I think Beardfish was the only ones to ever really make it their status quo in terms of this album’s whole release.
But don’t get it twisted, this is still 100% a Beardfish record. They still have that goofy, Zappa-esque energy that one can expect of them. In fact, given this came after The Mammoth, this feels more like a return to form for the band more than anything, even if the lyrics reflect a more darker sentimentality.

And honestly, I really like the metal on here.* It really does create a very dynamic sound, especially at the start with tracks like Voluntary Slavery and Turn To Gravel. Really, I don’t have much to complain about sound wise, since it's honestly just solid all around.

*But where I will complain is that even if I find the metal to be good, I think it doesn’t quite fit for Beardfish. I think even the band kinda realized this, as even though the album clearly presents itself as being metal, and I have presented as such too…it really isn’t. After a certain point it stops being metal and just kind of your usual Beardfish fair. Honestly after This Matter of Mine their metal output here just kind of stops, and we get back into familiar territory. Hell, even the big epic of this album of Note doesn’t even incorporate metal at all, and only at most dips into harder rock territory.

This just makes the album feel very confused. If they went all in on the metal, I might still not like it as much as the rest of their stronger albums, but I’d be more than willing to accept a more metal focused Beardfish. And if they didn’t go metal, then I think we’d be in for another really solid workout. But as it stands, it really feels like it doesn’t have much of an identity in either field. There is good music to be had, sure, but half the time I wonder if the band were really all in on this change of sound at all, and if they weren’t, why go to the trouble of making tracks in this direction in the first place?

But with this complaint, I still think The Void is a perfectly great record to listen to. It certainly isn’t the band at their worst. Far from it. I mean at this point they never really made a totally bad record, and even at their worst with Från en plats du ej kan se they still display a level of creativity and musical prowess that some bands wished they had. The Void is no exception, it's just kind of confusing in what it wants to be. And honestly, I rather have that than something like Love Beach or Treason.

Best tracks; Voluntary Slavery, Turn to Gravel, Note