BEARTOOTH-THE SURFACE

While I must say I thoroughly enjoyed Finn McKenty’s interview with Caleb Shomo on his brainchild Beartooth’s new album The Surface, I was also miffed he beat me to the punch with how I was going to lead off this review. Not really, but I had the exact same thought: The Surface accomplishes the seemingly impossible and actually pulls off “it’s our heaviest and most melodic” without the album being butt rock. Part of it is the contrast, with bright pop sensibilities washing in and out like the tides opposite raw fury on tracks like “Sunshine!” but that’s not all of it. The Surface is emotionally heavy, but largely not in the way we’ve come to expect from the band—the struggle against “the riptide that’s trying to drown me” is there, but Shomo emerges from the struggle stronger and more self-empowered. The brutally raw emotive quality of Beartooth remains—as does their relentless energy and all of the other recognizable features of the band—but the filter is different, and as mentioned the heavier parts are heavier, and the pop elements’ integration in particular truly shows Shomo having unlocked another level.

The record rips out of the gate in “The Surface,” heavy and high-energy, setting the tone for what’s to come. A little before a minute in, though, most of the band drops out for the first pre-chorus, with Shomo’s vocals ultimately laid completely bare before the uplifting chorus kicks in, leading off with the lyrics “All my worries were a waste of time / Made the world so blurry I was going blind.” The heaviness promptly returns at the end of the chorus through the second verse before the second pre-chorus keeps the whole band and finds the vocals layered in a way they weren’t the first time. The effect is that the first iteration of the pre-chorus felt more exposed and almost tentative whereas the second feels more convicted and empowered. “The Surface” introduces us to the thematic direction of the record and to the evolution of Shomo as an artist and as a man. The song eventually leaves off with more gut-punching savagery before we get “Riptide,” originally released as a single in 2022.

“Riptide” signaled a “clean slate” for Beartooth, with Shomo stating that “I basically made Beartooth’s version of a dance song.” Both musically as much as is possible given that it’s Beartooth and in the music video, the song, anchored by the exceptional chorus, finds Shomo doing his “boy band thing.” Shomo states that the song was written not long after he gave up drinking, and was a harbinger of the shape of Beartooth to come, with Shomo no longer willing to “romanticize the riptide that’s trying to drown me.” The time had come to make a change. Early in “Riptide” Shomo sings: “Finally frozen, no more emotion / Started escaping, now everything’s numb / Dove in the deep end, stuck and I can’t swim / So out of breath, I know I don’t have long.” What Shomo is describing is “red” in polyvagal theory:

In point of contrast, when in “Might Love Myself” Shomo sings “Chemistry is changing / Emotions rearranging / I’m outta my cage / Breaking my spell / Think I might / Think I might love myself,” his perspective is coming from a state of “green.” One can through engaging in practices such as breathwork, mindfulness, and meditation help calm their nervous system and not just get to a neuroception of safety but effectively make that their baseline through continuing these practices, changing negative behaviors, and committing to living according to one’s values, although as we hear play out over the course of the record, the process is not always linear. Lasting positive changes occur when one can consistently get to and stay in green. Being in a state of green generally perpetuates more green thoughts and feelings. According to the Bell Foundation:

Polyvagal theory, originally formulated by Dr Stephen Porges, provides a useful and integrative evolutionary framework for understanding these anxiety and panic responses…The nervous system uses a subconscious feature called neuroception to detect either safety or danger in others. Anxiety can be thought of as an overactive neuroception system, interpreting danger where there isn’t any danger…When you engage the green light, you create cycles of healing that are very effective in eliminating anxiety and panic.

Shomo is throughout The Surface describing these real, fundamental changes.

Incorporating another useful framework, the narrative arc of The Surface in many ways mirrors the Kübler Ross Change Curve Model, which outlines the “different stages people and the organization go through when a change occurs. There are four key stages people tend to go through as they experience change. These are: shock/denial, anger/fear, acceptance, and commitment.”

Quoting the ancient Chinese Confucian philosopher Meng Tzu (Mencius) in what reads like Hatebreed lyrics:

When Heaven is about to confer a great office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil. It exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty. It confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his incompetencies.

This is precisely the essence of The Surface. You don’t necessarily have to be familiar with the arc of Beartooth and Shomo to fully appreciate the album, but the context does add to its triumphal feel, lightyears of personal growth from “I’m nothing but sick and disgusting” to “So high up I’m weightless / Found another dimension / I see the kingdom coming / The future is my creation” on penultimate track “My New Reality” (co-written with Storii in one of a handful of instances on the album where Shomo made the typically-rare decision to enlist outside input), an exceptionally catchy offering where in the McKenty interview The Weeknd is mentioned as a stylistic reference point. As with “Might Love Myself,” the songs still reserve the right to go feral, breaking into musically- and emotionally-heavy exultations—Shomo in the case of “Might Love Myself” boldly declaring “I’m exactly who I wanna be!” “Might Love Myself” and “My New Reality” are legitimately great songs that showcase Shomo’s pop sensibilities and songwriting chops.

The fourth track, “The Better Me” featuring Hardy, incorporates a Nashville flavor, resulting in a buoyant slice of “countrycore,” something I want to hear more of. It feels like the sonic cousin if spiritual opposite of another Attack Attack! alumnus Johnny Franck’s Bilmuri song “ALL GAS” with Mitchell Tenpenny. Both songs are easily among my favorite tracks of the year, really fresh-sounding with high re-listenability, building on sonic ground broken (to the best of my knowledge) by Issues and Jon Langston with 2016’s “Yung & Dum.”  Whereas “ALL GAS” deals with a destructive relationship with alcohol, though, “The Better Me” strikes a different tone and “testif[ies] it’s time to recover.” Out of the all-too-familiar red of polyvagal theory (“I'm shutting down with one foot in the ground and I got no confidence left”) is a determined message to break the cycle of being “back in the gutter / banking on the same things” wallowing in self-defeat (“How many times have I said I was gonna be someone / When I get back onto my feet? / Tomorrow, I'm gonna make changes / Cause today I can barely speak”) with an exhortation to “just say it out loud: today’s the day I stop fucking around and be the better me.”

The push-and-pull of “Sunshine!” and “What’s Killing You” (with the latter’s opening feeling tailor-made for a set of heavy squats or deadlifts) follow the fifth track “Might Love Myself,” with the emotional nadir of the record arriving in the form of ballad “Look the Other Way,” which finds Shomo at his most vulnerable, singing:

I’m not falling asleep, wish my heart would beat slower
Thinking back on my year, wanna start it all over
I wake you up and I tell you I’m losing control
I’m barely surviving, but I need you to know

I’m picking up the pieces, please just look the other way
I’m picking up the pieces, please just look the other way
‘Cause baby I’m afraid I’m slowly pushing you away
By showing you the deepest, darkest, weakest part of me

“Look the Other Way” is also a love song about a supportive partner being a rock through even the lowest points: “You said you’ll always be right here to keep me company / When I don’t even love myself you love me anyway.“ Out of “Look the Other Way” comes the closing three song cycle of positivity and self-empowerment as the record surges upward to its close, with the intentionally straightforward “What Are You Waiting For” the distilled essence of the record, a high-energy kick in the seat of the pants urging the listener to “Turn your life around / No better time than now / To ask yourself / What are you waiting, what are you waiting for?” The previously-discussed anthem of ascension “My New Reality” follows, and the soaring “I Was Alive” closes out the proceedings in defiance of fear and regret, with Shomo singing “Not gonna be on my deathbed / Knowing I’ll be buried in regret…Not gonna be on my deathbed / Wondering why I was always scared / To say those words I never said / To the ones I loved while I was there.” It’s a beautiful song, a deeply resonant capstone to the achievement that is The Surface.

The Surface is masterful, it’s fresh, and it’s real; it is easily the best album I’ve heard this year. It’s also the perfect one to christen The Angels’ Share with a metaphorical smashing of a champagne bottle on its bow, a bold repudiation of fear and self-loathing and an embrace of life. In a world where too often cynicism and ironic detachment stand in for genuine feeling and authenticity, The Surface, like all Beartooth records, is as brutally honest as it gets. This record in particular stands as a testament to the work Shomo has done as a songwriter and on himself; it’s something we can all learn from and be inspired by. How many of us have been trapped in prisons of our own design? How many of us have let fear dictate how we’re going to live our lives? The Surface asks us are you going to stand on the sidelines or are you going to really live? “What are you waiting for?”