Beartooth

Beartooth. Columbus, OH. Sick EP (Red Bull Records) : Toward the end of his stint fronting Attack Attack!. Caleb Shomo's life and lyrics became increasingly strained. When he eventually departed the band in 2012, it was no surprise to people who heard him screaming lines like, "I need a new reality, I need to find ability," on AA!'s third album, This Means War. "I just couldn't handle being in that band anymore," he admits. "Nothing against the guys, but I just couldn't do it. I felt a lot of pressure, and I was starting to lose it. I had to move on." For Shomo (center), moving on meant literally going underground and writing music in his basement studio for an audience of one. "This whole thing started as a personal outlet," he says. "Whatever happens next, I don't want to change that - I don't want to turn it into something it's not. I hope Beartooth never become about getting a song on the radio and making a ton of money. I want it to be an honest document of whatever I'm going through at the moment." With the Sick EP released last year and the Disgusting full-length to come this year, the vocalist/producer/part-time EDM dabbler has done the honest part extremely well, as frank depictions of his struggles litter nearly all Beartooth songs. The vigor of candor has fired up the singer and turned Shomo from the kind of vocalist you worry about to the kind of vocalist you get extremely excited about. "Strangely, this band is a lot of fun for me, and it feels freeing to be performing these songs," he says. "I go out there, make music, run around the stage like a chicken with my head cut off, and that's about all it is. Whatever happens to this band is fine. I just want to be playing shows for the joy of music, which is what got me started in the first place." (Alternative Press 309.2 Apr 2014).