Friendship Commanders – Bear

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · November 8, 2025

Friendship Commanders is a two-piece band from Nashville, Tennessee. Featuring Buick Audra on guitar and vocals, and Jerry Roe on drums, bass, and synths, the duo play heavy yet melodic rock music. They have released the following recordings: 2016’s Dave, 2017’s Junebug EP, 2018’s Bill, 2020’s Hold On To Yourself EP, 2020’s Sonechild Single, 2021’s Altar/ Land Of Men Single, 2022’s Release The Rest EP, 2023’s Mass, 2024’s Bill- The Steve Albini Mixes, and their latest, 2025’s Bear. The band returned to Kurt Ballou at GodCity Records, in Salem, Massachusetts to record and mix the album. Bear was released on October 10th on Magnetic Eye Records and contains ten tracks at forty minutes long.

Friendship Commanders are such a fascinating and perfectly balanced marriage of doom and alternative music. From the opening notes of “KEEPING SCORE” to the hook grabbing ear worm of “DRAIN”, Friendship Commanders are a rock duo that derives stoner riffs and down-tuned doom with a catchy pop melody that works like magic. Buick Audra’s angelic and powerful vocals really makes all the difference. The grunge influence is in strong pursuit on tracks like “DRIPPING SILVER”, “MELT”, and the punk driving groove of “NEW”. The drumming of Jerry Roe is incredible on this whole album too. He has a hard and heavy groove that gives the songs a bouncy vibrancy. His contributions shouldn’t be overlooked, he also plays bass and synths on this record.

BEAR has a strong theme and message about self acceptance and dealing with not fitting in. The songs are sung with such a strong and deliberate power that you can feel the emotions in the vocals. The lyrics are poetic and deep and transcends songs like “X” and “MIDHEAVEN” into more complex and introspective compositions. It adds a layer of depth to the songs that makes them stand out even more.

“IMPERFECT” is a hard punching rock song that has a sassy and sarcastic tone, which makes the song pop. The straightforward hardcore flow of the music is the perfect platform for Buick to express her dynamic voice with such personal meaning. The album rounds out with the last two songs, “FOUND” and “DEAD AND DISCARDED GIRLS”. The latter is a more mellow glide that has a slightly fuzzed out texture, allowing the beautiful vocals to drive the sonic ship into the outer cosmos.

BEAR is a powerful expression of musical art and freedom that is often missing from music nowadays. Friendship Commanders are a strong and talented duo that could be compared to Year Of The Cobra. The music of the Commanders has more grunge and alternative elements blended in though. The production and sound quality of BEAR is magnificent! Kurt Ballou did a fantastic job recording them and getting their sound to be so bold and powerful. I can sense some great things happening for this band because this record is terrific.