Beartooth - Aggressive (2016)

CHEESY AS FUCK ALBUM COVER! This is like those fucking shirts of the wolves howling at the moon!! Even then, I wouldn't have picked the title "Aggressive" for an album that's mostly lyrically about being pretty fragile, but hey! You do you, boo boo.

It's kinda funny, I pretty much slammed the previous album as being little more than an after-school "ALCOHOL IS BAD" PSA set to music, due to its blunt lyrics being TOO generic for what was a very hard thing for vocalist Caleb Shomo to get through (alcoholism), and while the music and/or lyrics on this album aren't particularly aggressive enough to actually earn the title of "Aggressive", I'd say it's still not great, but it's a step up from "Disgusting" in the way that these songs seem like more time was generally spent on them, when it comes to melodies (still the good cop/bad cop formula, however), riffs, and even the lyrics are still blunt as all hell, but generally deal with personal accomplishments and rising above limitations that other people have placed on you. Sure, still teenager territory, but it's an improvement upon the "I went through something hard, so can you" lyrical content of "Disgusting", and hey! The vocals seem to have been beefed up a bit, with Caleb Shomo's screams sounding generally stronger, and his clean vocals more confident than before.

The problem is that the music's still too formulaic: Screamed verses, sung choruses, maybe a breakdown to give the kids something to freak the fuck out to live, but with the inclusion of "Always Dead", a song featuring no clean vocals, it gives off the feeling that this band could be much better if they mainly focused on -one- side of their music at a time, y'know? Maybe not good cop/bad cop vocals in every song. Maybe do a few without cleans, a few with clean choruses, and then really surprise everyone with a tender cleans-only song to really expose the fragile side of Caleb Shomo. As it stands, none of the tracks are really that bad, but none of them really stand out for whatever reason. I'm confident that Caleb Shomo has potential to put out an album that I could genuinely enjoy, but in the meantime, he's walking the tightrope of what will get Tumblr acceptance and what won't, but here's the thing: CALEB SHOMO KNOWS HOW TO WRITE A FUN RIFF AND SCREAM! Throw a few bones my way! Cleans used sparingly would end up being so much more powerful when used, and ultimately end up creating a more exciting album to listen to, even if it wouldn't be quite as singalong-catchy.

Shit, I just did a review where the artist could potentially read it, and I didn't include any of my trademark terrible jokes!! Shit, here's one: What do you call your friend who listens to Lil Dicky? Not a friend anymore! Okay, that wasn't really funny, but 'sup Caleb? You gucci, fam?

6/10
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Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!