Beartooth Put Heaviness and Pop Side by Side on Pure Ecstasy

Beartooth’s path has tracked metalcore’s broader shifts without ever fully blending in. The band started in a furious hardcore space, moved toward pop-punk territory on Disease, leaned into nu-metal weight on Below, and pushed into heavy-guitar pop on The Surface. Pure Ecstasy continues that last turn, but with a different balance.

The album shares structural ideas with The Surface. Both open with title tracks built on screamed verses and sung choruses. Lead singles open softly before breaking into boy-band-style hooks. But where The Surface often diluted its heaviness, Pure Ecstasy keeps the metal and hardcore riffs in direct contact with pop melody. “Lose You to Find Me” closes with a high run from Caleb Shomo that sits closer to mainstream pop than metalcore, while “You” is among the most aggressive Beartooth songs in years. A djent-leaning riff appears, with Periphery’s Misha Mansoor credited, and single-note breakdowns show up more often.

That contrast is the point. Beartooth remain formulaic in structure — screamed verse, clean chorus, breakdown — but on Pure Ecstasy the formula houses both extremes rather than choosing one. The result is less a crossover than a collision.