SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: SHOWING TEETH – A FATE WORSE THAN LONELINESS

SHOWING TEETH
A FATE WORSE THAN LONELINESS
SPINEFARM RECORDS

A Fate Worse Than Loneliness, a debut EP from emerging artist Showing Teeth, is something uniquely volcanic and melodically special. A one-woman project helmed by Nashville’s Addison, A Fate Worse Than Loneliness is a seven-track experience that introduces something new, exciting, and fresh to the world of extremely talented female rock musicians in the metal arena. Visceral, shapeshifting, and musically tactile, A Fate Worse Than Loneliness is fearless, and at this point in her career, it’s important. Unafraid to bare its creative fangs, this release makes you stop what you are doing because something new is approaching this genre, and it’s the kind of creative energy we need right now.

An EP stepping into this kind of rise that quickly gave her tour slot opportunities with Bring Me The Horizon and a fall tour with President – such huge moments at the beginning of someone’s career would shake the confidence of any new artist standing toe to toe with artists that have had longer legs and success in the business than you have – yet this EP shows she’s ready to show the world that she is ready to take on those challenges in more ways than one. Thematically, it steps into a multifaceted journey of loneliness, isolation, anxiety, and battles of self-defeat; these themes and the instrumental rawness convey a listening experience worth the time and support it’s been getting.

From the start, it’s clear this artist refuses to stay in one lane. Metalcore is a genre where its artists sometimes get creatively stuck, and many fear venturing beyond the heavy concepts that have long dominated it. Artists like Showing Teeth have seen the road ahead, with more modern artists expanding their musical horizons to create music that elicits more than rage; she takes these concepts and breaks down the boundaries that often make artists recycle the same tropes. From the thrash metal concepts that dominate “Bad Exchanges” and “Labyrinth,” the djent, groove metal, atmospheric alt‑metal, and even electronic soundscapes that dress “Rip” and “Shallow Grave,” to the more fantasy-imbued, electronic soundscapes that dance around the last track, “Paradigm,” it’s a starting point that shows this artist has more than a handful of tools vocally and instrumentally to create a full-length album. This blend of vulnerability and aggressive powerhouse dynamics that pervades this EP shows that this artist is more than the hype currently surrounding her. It’s a short experience that shows her range, vision, and creative honesty, which some artists with this kind of newfound success sometimes lose. Still, it shows an artist willing to push beyond what metalcore often demands creatively, forcing it to expand and look beyond itself.

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