Songfacts®:

• A riptide is a very strong current that occurs when the ocean tide pulls water through a bay or lagoon. Riptides make the water very rough and dangerous and can cause death by drowning following exhaustion while fighting the current. Here, Beartooth frontman Caleb Shomo is determined to start a new chapter in his life following years of struggle with mental health issues. By looking after his body and mind, he is swimming away from the riptide of negativity and depression.
• Musically, "Riptide" veers closer to dance-pop than anything the hardcore punk band has previously released. Shomo told NME it came about after he revisited artists he loved as a child such as 'N SYNC and Backstreet Boys. He also fed into the song the "big pop vibes" of Ariana Grande and BTS.
• When Shomo went into the studio in December 2021, "Riptide" poured out of him. "I remember listening to it for the first time and crying in my basement because I couldn't believe that song had come out of me," he said.
  
  Shomo added that he created "Riptide" to "catch people off guard" and show people there's another side to him "other than just being f---ing miserable and sad all the time."
• Caleb Shomo started Beartooth in 2012, and from their first EP Sick, he used the band as a vessel to help him cope with his depression and anxiety. 2021's Below found the singer outlining the mental strain of 14 months spent in isolation during the pandemic. He described Below to NME as "absolutely the most depressing and sad piece of work I've ever done."
  
  He added that he wanted to do something to get out of that headspace, and "set out to make something really fun, that makes you happy and isn't really f---ing sad."
• "Riptide" is Beartooth's first new song since Below and the first piece of music written by Shomo sober in around a decade. "It was an incredibly emotional experience, for sure," he told Kerrang. "I wrote it about a week into me quitting drinking, which was pretty nuts."
  
  "I'm starting to realize now that there are better ways for me to function, that I think just make me a lot happier," Shomo added. "And it's cool! And that's where 'Riptide' came from."
• The Dylan Marko Bell-directed music video finds Shomo sharing the stage with a group of interpretative dancers. "There's obviously a lot of symbolism, and what it represents is very serious," the singer told Kerrang. "But the more important thing is that it's supposed to be fun, and it's supposed to be like, 'Look, is this is who I am. This is what I'm going through at the moment."