Beartooth look set to survive the death of the Warped Tour metalcore scene with their third album Disease. It’s a more polished, more hook laden and a less heavy take on their sound which saw them thrive within the Warped Tour scene. There’s a definite US radio rock feel to this record, whilst still maintaining that 2010 metalcore sound. It has builds and light breakdowns as well massive arena made choruses.
The record itself is consistent throughout in both song structure, style and sound. This is perhaps the reason it’s hard to pick a highlight. Obviously singles like, Disease, You Never Know and Bad Listener stand out somewhat but there isn’t a great deal of variation throughout. This means that the album becomes rather monotonous after time and it’s easy to lose focus. Frontman Caleb Shomos vocals are obviously great and it’s when he has a trade off with the rhythm section that the vocals really shine. Fire is a great example of this.
The polished production on this record means that it’s hard to fully feel the personality of Beartooth. Something that made them stand out from the rest of their scene. When personality does come through it comes through in a nod to their influences. For example on Enemy the intro is an obvious nod to Pantera’s Cowboys From Hell. In truth this song is one of the heaviest on the record and does regain your attention after a rather bland start to the midsection.
Overall this is a good record from Beartooth and fans of the band may enjoy it. Fans of the more abrasive side of Beartooth may be left wanting more, due to the very polished production. It will be interesting to see how the songs from this record come across live and fit into the more visceral live show that Beartooth put on.