Review Summary: A silver lining but still a waste of potential.
Beartooth have released their third studio album and it is the run of the mill, poppy metalcore sound that has been at least somewhat present in their past two endeavors, but this time it is thrown in your face. While there are definitely some heavy in-your-face songs packed into Disease, they can be few and far between from time to time.
"Greatness or Death" kicks the album off strong with Caleb's clean vocals transitioning into screams quite often, while gritty guitars and drums mesh together in the background to kick the record into high gear from the get go. His screams especially show off here, showing that he is capable of still creating gritty, hard-hitting tracks. "Bad Listener" could be compared to the first track, possibly being one of the heaviest on the album, with darkened vocals. "Used and Abused" could also be compared to really either of these, with a long intro with screams fading into the background. It shows off a well-paced breakdown in the bridge, though the ending of the song is a little underwhelming with Caleb singing "used and abused".
"Disease" keeps this trend up, and while it shares more clean vocals than anything, it has a glass-shattering chorus with the drums hitting in time with the guitar riffs.
"Fire" is one of those songs that you could call filler. It has the generic "I'm gonna kick your ass" vibe that we've all heard one thousand times, but in terms of musicianship, it's enjoyable with fast paced guitars which could definitely cause a crowd to move - maybe if not for the chorus that doesn't own up to any of it until the clean vocals end.
"You Never Know", "Believe" and "Infection" all almost hold the same formula: punchy-intro that leads into poppy instrumentals, verses and choruses. Believe would be especially guilty of this but it holds no aggressive tone throughout the entirety of the track. "Afterall" could fit into this category as well, though the verses with the harsh vocals show that this could have excelled, it just falls short.
"Manipulation" has slower vocals with a hard hitting chorus with Caleb's vocals gradually growing, until the drums beat to the sound of his screams, until hitting the bridge where the song really shows itself. Caleb shows off a bone chilling scream with the drums steadily moving before abruptly ending into a final chorus.
"Enemy" can be seen as one of the heavier poppy songs, the drums are played almost savagely after the chorus, which rolls into Caleb screaming his heart out before heading into the same-y chorus once again, despite the metal-esque bridge with the drums being beaten hard as the same guitar part is played over it a few times.
"Clever" is the softest song on this record but it has the most genuine lyricism on the record as a whole, and it is less focused on a basic rhythm and feels moreso that Caleb is simply going with whatever feels natural, giving the album a decent close.
With Disease, Beartooth had managed to show they still have potential to create some of the heaviest music they can, but it is not explored all too much. Overall more than a decent record, there is definitely room for this group to improve.
Recommended tracks:
Greatness or Death
Disease
Bad Listener
Used and Abused
Clever
