FROM GOOSE HONKS TO GUT PUNCHES, SHOWING TEETH MAKES THEIR DEBUT WITH THEIR EP ‘A FATE WORSE THAN LONELINESS’

Imagine telling someone a few years ago that one of metalcore’s more interesting new vocalists would emerge from the sacred musical institution known as “Sitting in a Honda and Screaming at Your Phone.” Addison, Showing Teeth’s frontwoman, started off doing just that: sitting in her car, screaming at her phone, adding in some unexplained goose honks and other noises with the general energy of a golden retriever who just discovered deathcore.

What began as car covers has now evolved into a beautifully confident introduction to Showing Teeth. The band recently released their debut EP, A Fate Worse Than Loneliness, a title that offers a surprisingly simple lesson: there are worse things than being alone. Addison has a remarkable ability to move from cavernous lows to shrieking highs to delicate clean vocals, but what’s truly impressive is that she knows exactly when to use each one. Her harsh vocals convey genuine fury and rage rather than merely checking off a list of everything a modern metalcore vocalist is expected to do, while her softer cleans give the EP an emotional dimension that could easily have been buried beneath all that heaviness.

As Showing Teeth’s first body of work, A Fate Worse Than Loneliness is impressive because Addison’s delivery feels so deliberate throughout every song. She doesn’t scream simply because the track has reached the obligatory breakdown. Instead, her delivery changes with the emotion of the moment. The screams sound vicious when they need to, desperate when they need to, and furious when they need to. Her voice becomes another way of communicating the emotions running underneath the songs and woven throughout the lyrics.

One of my favorite parts of the EP is the contradiction between its lyrics and its sound. A Fate Worse Than Loneliness is, at times, sonically monstrous, but its lyrics are often far more intimate than the music initially suggests. Beneath the breakdowns and insane screams is a very human collection of feelings: loneliness, resentment, heartbreak, self-doubt, and the painful realization that sometimes the person you miss isn’t the person you thought they were.

There’s something incredibly cathartic and authentic about hearing Addison deliver such overwhelming heaviness while singing about painfully recognizable emotions. That contrast is exactly what makes me fall in love with this EP every time I listen to it. The heaviness never overpowers its vulnerability. Instead, it amplifies it. The screams feel less like an aesthetic choice and more like the musical equivalent of finally saying all the things you were too angry, hurt, or afraid to say normally.

If A Fate Worse Than Loneliness leaves you wanting to experience all of that beautiful chaos in person, Showing Teeth is currently on tour with PRESIDENT, including a hometown-adjacent stop at Ceremony Festival in Nashville on October 17.