Beartooth’s ‘Disease’ is a broader, more modern rock-inflected release from these Ohio metalcore heavyweights. Anyone who ever died a banana-stripe into their jet black fringe, had snake bites or owned a pair of skinny jeans in every color of the rainbow will remember the band’s frontman Caleb Shomo from his first big project, Attack! Attack! In a way, this new Beartooth song feels like he’s come full circle. His old band, which unashamedly fused the most garish elements of 2000s electro-pop with bruising Midwestern metalcore, definitely had a gimmick. Even the biggest Attack! Attack! fan will admit that. ‘Disease’ kind of has a gimmick too, but it feels like a more traditional one. These guys do a solid job of fusing their now-translucent metalcore framework and the more palatable elements of slick Britannic post-hardcore with a nu metal-influnced radio rock sensibility. This is definitely a quality track. The question is whether there’s still a market for it. Bands like Bring Me the Horizon have managed to make an effective pivot (at least from a commercial standpoint) in recent years, but the market for rock music is a fading one. Check out ‘Disease’ below!
Noah Zucker // IG – @zucker.n // Twitter – @zuckern13