Beartooth
Disgusting

Release Date: 2014 | Tracklist

Attack Attack! were always looked down upon, but when Caleb Shomo took over vocal position in the band it seemed that even those who adored their debut lost their initial interest. His vocals, which were notably more ugly and painful sounding than his predecessor’s, only suited the band once they embraced a heavier, angrier sound on their third record This Means War. Obviously, he has the metalcore formula worked out, but his vocals somewhat lack as an instrument of aggression. Far too often he sounds forced and in desperate need of expanding his range, which rarely strays from the style of I Have a Problem, which was the worst song on the EP and an unfortunate choice to include here . To compensate for his poor screaming ability, Shomo implements his radio rock-ish clean vocals far more here than on the Sick EP. But the poppy choruses are an awkward juxtaposition against the caustic screams, and often they merely become as much of an annoyance.

Not the band would be anything outstanding without him. At its heart, this is a decently-produced, fairly riffy metalcore album with a fat bass tone and a tasty kick drum sound, but every song here sounds EXACTLY the same. Ignore the increasingly monotonous verses and you’re still left with nothing at all memorable, save a load of radio-friendly hooks that are even more annoying and vapid than they were in Attack Attack!’s later work. Lyrically, this is very similar to This Means War in that it has a tendency to repeat the same line 10 times over in every single track, yet somehow manages to be even more boring. Songs like The Abduction had moderately interesting concepts, but were executed very poorly and thus lost any potential. Here, there’s nothing to rope you in in the first place. This is, in short, the most uninteresting metalcore release of the year.

Really, the worst thing about this album is how Shomo’s new direction is such a thinly veiled attempt at being taken seriously. On Someday Came Suddenly, he was the chubby teenager playing synth in a ridiculous sounding band that only a select few people actually liked. After the band’s self-titled album, he ditched the fun and totally focused on his new, edgy look, and even edgier music. Therefore, Disgusting is exactly that, a terrible move in a new stage of Shomo’s career birthed solely from a decision to behave like the adult Shomo has recently become.

Tweet

Recent reviews by this author
Rick Ross Hood Billionaire	Secret Band Secret Band EP
Converge Gravel	Pitbull Globalization
Touche Amore Touche Amore	La Dispute Vancouver

user ratings (674)

rate it Awful - 1 Very Poor - 1.5 Poor - 2 Average - 2.5 Good - 3 Great - 3.5 Excellent - 4 Superb - 4.5 Classic - 5

3.4 great

Rank: #0 for 2014