Beartooth are a microcosm of metalcore. On their early releases, they were furious, chaotic and hardcore-leaning. They defined a new take on “metallic hardcore”, based on the melodic style of Comeback Kid and Stick to Your Guns rather than the grooving chugs of Killing Time. They retained the sing-scream-breakdown structures of their contemporaries and even added nu-metal grooves. It established a trend by the decade’s end: the White Noise, Cutting Teeth, Black Coast. However, it remained unnamed save for self-descriptions like “puke rock” by My Ticket Home and “triple dragon” by early Blood Youth.
As they progressed, Beartooth followed the genre’s most infamous trends. On Disease (2018), they bordered on pop-punk. On Below (2021), they leaned into those nu-rhythms and gravel-throated melodies, creating the heaviest possible version of Three Days Grace butt rock. Then, on The Surface (2023), they became the Backstreet Boys with heavy guitars. Even then, they never sounded like the trendy interpretations.
Whether that be the pop screamo melody-clad, down-up-down-up chugging “risecore” of Memphis May Fire or Blessthefall; the synthwave ambience and Linkin Park chorused “octanecore” of the Plot in You and Bad Omens; Motionless in White or Of Mice & Men’s buttcore; or Chunk No Captain Chunk’s major scale breakdown easycore. Beartooth remained chaotic and never lost sight of punk.
Even in their distinction from peers and style changes, Beartooth remain insularly formulaic. They rarely waver from a screamed verse, sung chorus, and breakdown bridge structure, and these tropes manifest across two album cycles. Take Disgusting (2014) and Aggressive (2016), where fifth tracks open with strikingly similar building melodies and drum fills, and their most hardcore-leaning songs are titled “Dead” and “Always Dead”.
In this respect, Pure Ecstasy is the twin of The Surface. Both openers are title tracks with screamed verses over consistent eighth-note-chugged power chords, contrasted by sung choruses. Both openers feature lyrics discussing life regrets. Both albums have lead singles that begin with soft introductions, then break into a chorus with a boy-band melody. Both have screamed, chugging post-choruses. Both feature high-pitched screeching lead guitars over their breakdowns. Both feature lyrics describing how vocalist Caleb Shomo wants to be happier.
While The Surface diluted its heavy elements in favour of pop, Pure Ecstasy puts them side by side. Top 40 pop melodies are on every track; Shomo even executes an Ariana Grande-esque high run in the final chorus of “Lose You to Find Me”. Screams, as well as metal and hardcore riffs, are equally frequent. “You” is the most early-sounding Beartooth track in years.
The album’s heavy moments lean into new territories. The occasional riff resembles djent, something uncommon in their previous eras (Periphery guitarist Misha Mansoor even has a writing credit). There is an increased adoption of typical, single-note breakdowns, while Beartooth’s earlier depictions had varyingly pitched power chords. “Beautiful Again” recalls Rise Against’s “Audience of One”. “Eyes Closed” and “You” even include the kind of spoken word build-ups found in Misery Signals and Counterparts.
This contrasts with half the album’s tracklist, which incorporates overt pop introductions. “You” features a synthesiser backing Shomo sing-rapping, “Wanna be a bad bitch”, reminiscent of the trending diva electropop of Charli XCX or Slayyyter, whereas “Sorry” is closer to pop trap. For the most part, these elements disappear after the song’s drop; however, “Bullshit” reintroduces them in its bridge, making for the most standard octanecore moment in the band’s career.
Transitions between sections are occasionally less fluid, evoking mechanical pop structures. This is most noticeable on “Eyes Closed” when its first chorus crashes into its post-chorus riff and when its breakdown cuts into a bridge, as if punched in on a DAW. Shomo’s clean singing leans further into boy-band timbres, adopting rounder vowel sounds, dropping the bass in his voice, and increasingly incorporating falsetto parts.
Pure Ecstasy’s lyrics focus on Shomo’s recently-revealed homosexuality. However, they are vague. There’s good reason why, upon the release of “Free” (prior to Shomo’s coming out), many believed “I’m free / I’m running to the light so you could see / Every single fucked up piece of me” to be referencing his new flamboyant fashion sense.
A frequent motif is the separation between the closeted-Shomo and the out-Shomo, where the former is an oppressor of the latter. They see him at the point of transition, acknowledging how he must become his open self but is still trapped by his closeted counterpart.
For an album expressing such deep subject matter, Shomo never particularly harnesses emotions the way he did on earlier records. No lyrics come close to “I Have a Problem’s”: “When did my king start living inside a glass bottle / My stomach is bleeding / But I’m still drinking” or in the “Me in My Own Head” text: “What I would give to sleep my life away / I’d never feel alone again / And yet it’s still the same when I’m dreaming”.
While these are the exact “sad songs” Shomo stated he “don’t wanna sing another” of in “Riptide” (2023), his motifs are unchanged. In “Lose You to Find Me”, he still sings, “On the edge of my life / Can’t take anymore / Crying all night on the bedroom floor / Find myself not winning the war.” His hardships are simply reframed as if he is about to change, rather than showing change. The lyrics are no longer entirely hopeless, but they are too frightened of honesty to be uplifting.
While Pure Ecstasy highlights Beartooth’s undeniable talent for pop songwriting, it still pushes their heaviness in new directions and never loses its roots. Although it could have been a heartstring-tugging tale of Shomo accepting himself later in life, it hides in ambiguity and can’t reach its full lyrical potential. Fans turned off by The Surface’s pop emphasis may find solace in Pure Ecstasy recapturing aggression.