- 2021-07-14
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MUSIC
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Donate to support families affected by the crisis in Ukraine ➔ Beartooth Releases New Album “Below”: Streaming
American hardcore punk band Beartooth released their fourth studio album “Below” for the first time in three years on June 25, 2021.
The album comprises of 12-track, written and produced by Caleb Shomo.
Also, the album is the first LP leaving their longtime guitarist Kamron Bradbury, as well as Will Deely joining in the band as a new guitarist.
Frontman Caleb Shomo said of the album, “'Below' is by far my favourite album I've made to date. it covers the dark side of dealing with mental strain during the last year. I gave it all I had — musically and lyrically.”
Caleb Shomo wrote songs on the road, but they recorded the album during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.“This album really is like a timestamp of lockdown in a way,” he told Apple Music. “It's about all the stuff that gets buried inside you that you don't really deal with, but that comes boiling back up due to all the isolation. It's about slowly losing your mind over time. I tried to reflect my mental state during lockdown. As it went on longer and longer, I was breaking down more and more.”- dhq2ZEW5zLQ
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Caleb Shomo explained track-by-track for the album.
“Below”
“I was in a hotel room on a day off on the Motionless in White co-headlining tour, and my buddy gave me this distortion pedal. I had this little recording setup, and I just remember making this guitar sound, and then the next thing I know, the music for the song is written. It really captured everything I was going for—the energy and the speed, but also the big riffs and the breakdown-y stuff. But the lyrics are just incredibly defeating. I wrote them knowing this song was written for the live show, but we had no idea when that was ever going to happen again. So, it's just me coping with that.”
“Devastation”
“I was in a hotel room on a day off on the Motionless in White co-headlining tour, and my buddy gave me this distortion pedal. I had this little recording setup, and I just remember making this guitar sound, and then the next thing I know, the music for the song is written. It really captured everything I was going for—the energy and the speed, but also the big riffs and the breakdown-y stuff. But the lyrics are just incredibly defeating. I wrote them knowing this song was written for the live show, but we had no idea when that was ever going to happen again. So, it's just me coping with that.”
“The Past Is Dead”
“This was the first complete song I wrote for the album, in November 2019, so it's been around for a while. It was kind of the discovery of what I wanted to do sonically with the album. I found all the guitar tones, and musically it felt really well-built. It was the catalyst for the rest of the songs. In the video, we have Barry, who is our new mascot dude. He represents all the things that are buried below, all the stuff that came out of lockdown and this whole insane year. He's very heavily influenced by Iron Maiden's mascot, Eddie.”-
“Fed Up”
“I had a really fun time making that song. I'm a really big Foo Fighters fan, and I like that '90s, garage-y, just driving-the-whole-time kind of sound. It's got pretty much one drumbeat throughout the majority of the song. I just wanted it to sound kind of dirty, grungy, too loud, and over the top. Like the majority of the songs, the lyrics came out of one of those days in the middle of lockdown where it's like, 'I'm so sick of this, and all I want to do is rock again.'”
“Skin”
“Skin” is the most 'easy listening' kind of song that you're gonna get on this album. It's definitely more melody-driven, a little more pop, a little more vibe-y. But lyrically, this one means a lot to me, and musically, I was super happy with the composition, and it just gave a new flavor to the album.”
“Hell of It”
“This was another very live-centered one. I wrote that on that Motionless in White tour as well—at least all the music. I was probably listening to Motörhead and wanted something with that kind of groove. I just wanted the guitars to kind of growl, so I wrote really simple riffs in the breakdowns and stuff. It's got a super-basic drumbeat behind it and it's just a good time, plain and simple.”
“The Last Riff”
“This is my favorite song on the record, and probably my favorite closing track we've ever done. It's the first time Beartooth's ever done a fully instrumental song. With all the previous records, the final song takes a big shift. It's usually some sort of super-deep, personal, emotional song that's all focused on the vocals. But I just wasn't in the mood for that. I felt so beat down that I didn't have anything left in the tank, lyrically. So, I just wrote a really long, slow instrumental. And in a weird way, it is an incredibly emotional song. To be able to do that without any lyrics was really cool.” - source : Apple Music
