Image: Beartooth Live [Karoline Schaefer, @cateyephotography]
Beartooth are back! After frontman Caleb Shomo and co. already released their single “Free” back in February, the US outfit are now following it up with another track and the official announcement of their new album. The upcoming LP is called Pure Ecstasy and will see the light of day on August 28, 2026 via Fearless Records. The title track is also available to stream right now.
Pure Ecstasy marks Beartooth’s sixth full-length record. Since their debut Disgusting (2014), the band has continuously reinvented themselves — not only musically, but also visually and thematically. What once started as an extremely raw and almost overloaded outburst has evolved into a far more layered sound over the years without ever losing its emotional core. Because no matter the era: Beartooth have always served as a direct outlet for mental struggles, self-doubt, and the attempt to somehow cope with it all.
The Raw Early Days Of Beartooth
Even Disgusting sounded less like a polished metalcore album and more like a pressure valve exploding wide open. Caleb Shomo, who had previously played in Attack Attack!, wrote and produced the entire record himself and handled most of the instrumentation almost entirely on his own. Musically, the album lands somewhere between hardcore, early metalcore, and punk attitude.
That rough sound perfectly matched the themes behind the music. Caleb Shomo incorporated deeply personal topics into the songs — and still does to this day. Mental health struggles, anxiety, loss of control, and battling yourself became central themes. That level of honesty quickly turned into one of the band’s trademarks and laid the foundation for everything that followed. The album also delivered several songs that remain staples to this day. “In Between,” for example, has since gone Platinum and is still a fixed part of Beartooth’s live sets, often serving as the emotional set closer and easily carrying the biggest singalong moments at their shows.
With the follow-up Aggressive (2016), that raw approach became more structured. The title is almost a little misleading because while the album still bursts with energy, it feels much more controlled. The production is cleaner and the songs lean more heavily into massive choruses and festival-ready singalongs. Tracks like “Hated” or “Rock Is Dead” already showcased how Beartooth began blending heaviness with accessibility and making metalcore/post-hardcore more approachable for listeners outside the scene. At the same time, the thematic core stayed exactly the same: inner conflict, self-doubt, and the constant fight against yourself — just packaged in a more digestible musical form.
Music As An Expression Of Emotion
Building on that, Disease (2018) continued the band’s musical evolution while moving into significantly darker territory lyrically. The album feels less impulsive than its predecessors and much more deliberately constructed — almost as if Shomo was no longer simply releasing his inner demons but actively shaping and analyzing them. You can hear that in the sound as well: the arrangements become more detailed and complex.
This was also the first time color symbolism played a major role in Beartooth’s visual identity. While Disgusting and Aggressive leaned into darker and more muted tones, the artwork for Disease was dominated by orange. The band carried that aesthetic over into their live production too. Stage backdrops featured the same color palette, as did the bandana Caleb wore as part of his signature look onstage and in music videos.
After orange came purple. With Below (2021), the darkness introduced on Disease transformed into something even heavier. The album is slower, more atmospheric, and far less focused on traditional core energy than its predecessors. Instead, massive and almost doom-like structures dominate the record, taking their time to unfold. Lyrically, Below feels like a prolonged stare into complete exhaustion: less anger, more emptiness; fewer explosions, more internal pressure. Today, Shomo openly says he was in an extremely dark mental place while writing the album and that the songs directly reflect that state of mind.
Higher And Higher…
That’s exactly why the contrast with The Surface (2023) felt so impactful afterward. Suddenly, much more light entered the Beartooth sound. The songs became more accessible, more modern in production, and far more focused on hooks and dynamics. Without losing their emotional honesty, the record shifts away from pure darkness and toward a sense of healing and progression — something Shomo himself has confirmed. It’s less about being trapped in certain emotional states and more about climbing out of them. According to him, it became the most honest album in Beartooth’s discography while also being the one that gave him the most hope.
Visually, that transition was reflected in bright pink aesthetics (with the exception of “Riptide,” which was initially released as a standalone single and associated with turquoise). Overall, the era embraced brighter, cleaner colors and a much more open visual identity.
…All The Way To The Top?
With that in mind, Pure Ecstasy already feels like the logical next step. It's the first album to be released via Fearless Records. The previously released singles “Free” and the title track suggest that Beartooth are continuing to refine their sound without sacrificing the emotional intensity they’re known for. Everything feels more controlled, but not more distant — rather like Caleb Shomo has learned how to better navigate his own extremes.
After more than a decade of constant change, maybe that’s the true red thread — literally, considering red seems to be the dominant color this era — running through Beartooth’s career: the band has never stood still and instead used every phase to musically express a different part of themselves.
