ALBUM REVIEW: Below – Beartooth
Hitting rock bottom comes with two choices; lay down and die or get up and resume the fight. Many of us will have faced this choice during current times. No stranger to this subject. BEARTOOTH give us another dose of ‘feels-core’ with the incredible new album Below.
The follow up to 2018’s Disease is chock-full of slicing riffs and subject matter so dark you’ll want to pop Big Light on. The hardcore punk juggernauts Caleb Shomo [vocals], Zach Huston [guitars], Will Deely [guitars], Oshie Bichar [bass], and Connor Denis [drums] take us through a mind refusing to surrender.
The title track makes us uneasy as crackles and feedback pour through the speakers. Pounding drums set the foundation for hardcore screams of the unravelling mind. Below turns on a dime with a manic laugh triggering thick, melodic guitars. Catchy hooks crawl into the ears like “the fear that infects your brain”. Catharsis reigns “six hundred and sixty six feet in my hell below” as a breakdown bordering on doom drags us to Hell.
“Everything’s such a blur these days” proclaims The Past Is Dead. While cementing their legacy as a band to purge emotions to, BEARTOOTH expose a flaw. It’s a shame the slower chorus disrupts this otherwise crushing song. The Past Is Dead is a radio friendly version of hardcore but it brings too much deviation. Yet, Skin is an example of this formula done right. The melodic metal anthem explores feelings of vulnerability while maintaining a punk edge. It’s hardcore to confront your demons. It’s also punk as hell to admit you’re not okay. Skin allows us to indulge in a sweet chugging riff as we scream “I’m so uncomfortable”.
A crowning jewel for Below is Dominate; a showcase of the brutality of breaking the cycle. “Time to separate the weakest part of me” Shomo states with a conviction we’ve all felt. The conviction comes laced with discomfort as the transitional licks set us on edge. Dominate is unsettling by nature. Throughout, Shomo switches between screams of frustration and growls of determination. Meanwhile, the guitars border on the jumbled buzzing of mental anguish. Lyrical savagery flies from Shomo‘s “the fight is overwhelming, I’m learning how to thrive”.
It’s the norm for a band to blur the lines of their genre boundaries. Some take it too far and lose themselves, but BEARTOOTH excel. Their absence wasn’t in vain. The proof is in the fusing of I Won’t Give It Up‘s pop-punk atmosphere with The Answer‘s metalcore elements. Honing their sonic and lyrical craft has paid off. Below holds twelve songs of savagery against mental illness – a phenomenon which has and will continue to claim many minds. The soundscape of Below, especially in closer The Last Riff, is sinister in places. Yet this album will console you with one hand while it rips your soul apart with the other.
Below is a true tour de force for BEARTOOTH. While the album isn’t perfect in that one or two tracks are interchangeable, we let it slide. Below drains us of our negativity and leaves us feeling spent in the best possible way. The one thing we lack now is a live arena where we purge ourselves to the sound of madness.
Rating: 9/10
Below is set for release on June 25th via Red Bull Records.
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