Album review: Beartooth – Below

‘I feel the rage / Something’s starting to grow,’ snarls Caleb Shomo. ​‘Six hundred sixty six feet in my hell below…’ Starting with the first line of the opening title-track on Beartooth​’s fourth album, it’s clear that we’re treading through more unhinged, infernal territory than ever before. From the skeletal biker ripping up the graveyard dirt on its artwork (“He’s the overlord of the darkness within myself,” Caleb told K! earlier this year) to the headbanging rhythms of Fed Up, the blastbeats of Dominate and the Metallica-indebted instrumental closer The Last Riff, this is a no-holds-barred exercise in heavy fucking metal. It’s a record influenced by Sabbath and Sleep, Power Trip and Pantera – and it shows through proudly. Thematically, the shift fits. Caleb has admitted...

unsplash-logoLilith Redmoon