Caleb Shomo, right now, is in a good place.
His band Beartooth has a brand new album to share in Pure Ecstasy – their sixth studio project, and their first with new label Fearless Records.
11 songs that navigate one of Shomo’s most personal life chapters, Pure Ecstasy feels like an exercise in processing a full spectrum of emotion, while also allowing for the band’s evolution to unfold in a fresh way.
For Shomo, the release of this album adds to what has been one of the most unpredictable years of his life. Making the decision to publicly come out as a proud gay man earlier this year put Shomo onto the public radar in a way that no one could expect or desire. Instead of retreating and cowering, the songwriter and musician leaned into the embrace of community and the healing qualities of the music.
As he explains, the release of Pure Ecstasy and preparation for Beartooth’s upcoming return to touring have been the jolt he’s needed to remind himself of his purpose.
“Having to prepare for touring, putting in all this work and singing every day…it’s just good for my mental health,” he tells Rolling Stone AU/NZ. “It’s just good to be doing music all day and just doing the thing. I’ve been not doing the thing for so long, you forget who you are. I’m starting to remember like…this is what I’ve dedicated my entire life to. We’re back.”
Speaking from his home in Los Angeles, Shomo smiles warmly as he contemplates the creation of Pure Ecstasy.
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The journey to get to this smile has not been without its challenges, but the way in which Shomo speaks about this body of work, and the way he carries himself in general, it is clear that he has never felt so at peace with who he is.
“I’ve said this about records before, that this will probably be the most important record that I will ever make in my life,” he offers. “Where it has led me in my life, I have no words. I can’t imagine being who I was a couple of years ago, even, I can’t imagine it. I think that’s progress. I credit the record for so much of that.”
Co-produced by Jordan Fish (ex-Bring Me The Horizon, Poppy), Pure Ecstasy saw Shomo really test himself, forced to face the reflection in the mirror he had been avoiding for so long. Shomo himself admits that Fish’s presence and objectivity are the main reason Pure Ecstasy is the vulnerable and visceral piece of art that it is.
During their first session together, the duo created ‘Free’ – the cathartic first single from Pure Ecstasy. The song, Shomo explains, only came as a result of Fish’s encouragement to start writing about exploring his sexuality and ultimately coming out.
“This was in November 2025. I’d already been out to some friends and family since September 1st,” he remembers. “That was the first day it had left my lips.”
“We were talking about that, as it was the main thing going on in my life. He just asked me if I’d written a song about [coming out] yet. I was like, “No fucking way.” I didn’t even know how to process it for myself, let alone be open about it on a Beartooth song.”
Prior to the creation of Pure Ecstasy, Shomo had been working on a collection of material that he now admits could never have been a Beartooth record. An album that was “very, very creative”, the project wasn’t addressing the reality of life that Shomo himself was navigating personally.
It was something Fish picked up on as well.
“He’d been sitting with all that music for a while,” Shomo remembers. “As a friend, he called me and was like, “Dude, this thing you’re working on is so cool and creative and out there, but in my opinion, it’s not a Beartooth record. When I look at what this band is from the outside, when I look at what we talked about in the studio…what Beartooth is to me and to everyone else, and to you, is an outlet for your internal dialogue. For you to really deal candidly with the things you’re struggling with in your life.”
Agreeing, Shomo asked if Fish would co-produce the album with him and from there, the work began. Charged by a collaborative spirit that filled Shomo with the confidence to step further into the truest version of himself as an artist, Pure Ecstasy came together across the span of a month.
His bandmates – Oshie Bichar (bass), Zach Huston and Will Deely (guitars), and Connor Denis (drums) all played larger roles than ever before, reinforcing the dynamic nature of Beartooth as well as showing the band’s frontman and songwriter that he was not in this chaotic time of his life alone.
“I was too scared. There was too much going on in my life,” Shomo admits – he would not have been able to make this album in an isolated environment.
“We [Shomo and Fish] brought the songs into what was going on in my life and what I felt like I needed to process and deal with. I mixed it and sent it off and was like, “This is it.” I needed to get away from it before I got too scared and tried to water it down. The collaboration is why this record is what it is, period.”
The album’s title itself represents a dive into the unknown, representing territory unlocked by Beartooth and explored with a rawness that audiences have not seen from Shomo before.
Musically, the album embraces a darker, denser edge to some of the material in a way that feels reminiscent of earlier Beartooth records, but threaded through the DNA of Pure Ecstasy is a resounding feeling of heaviness being let go. The intensity the listener can lose themselves in on this record matches the energy Shomo was able to channel in becoming comfortable with this new life in front of him – it isn’t smooth, it’s not always going to be pretty, but in choosing honesty and bravery, the unknown has never felt more curious, or exciting.
Still, he remains tentative.
“As much as I do think the songs kick ass and I’m proud of them,I am just more enamoured by the conviction it was made with,” Shomo says. “I’m proud of myself for that. I’m rarely proud of myself for much by for this one I’m like…yeah dude, you just put your fucking heart onto a recording and said goodbye. You’re gonna deal with all of the aftermath, which I am. We have yet to fully understand what all of that is, but I’m optimistic.”
“There are just parts of it [Pure Ecstasy] that I barely even understand,” he adds. “I go back to the emotion that I was feeling, either when a vocal was happening or when the lyrics happened; when a creative choice was made to leave something out of a song, or to leave something in. It was just so fucking honest. It was so fucking intense.
I’m really glad that, at the end of the day, I chose honesty with no regard for anything else. Did it feel like the right thing to do for this version of Caleb who is making this record at this place in his life? I can wholeheartedly say, yes. Every single song, every single part. That was meant to be at that moment. I usually don’t feel that way about every record. This one, it just feels like something different to me.”
The tour cycle for Pure Ecstasy starts in Europe and North America for Beartooth, before coming to Australia in January. It marks the first time the band has toured Australia since 2023 and already, Shomo is beyond excited to get the show back on the road.
The stage is, as he describes, his safe space. It’s the zone where things begin to make more sense and with a brand new outlook and music to share, Shomo cannot wait to dive in.
“I’ll tell you, the fear has really come in waves. The initial reception was terrifying. It continues to be,” he says. “I know this for sure, if anyone is coming to this tour, they want to be there. We are going to give them an emotional explosion on that stage. I know I will be. I have so much shit that I just need to let out and that is my safest place to do it. I cannot fucking wait. I cannot wait for the healing.”
In the meantime, Shomo continues to work on staring at that reflection in the mirror, and becoming more and more proud of who is staring back. After not being able to do so for so long, Shomo knows how powerful taking risks can be. But just as powerful is the ability to pour grace and love into oneself, even when it feels like we least deserve it.
That’s why Pure Ecstasy exists as both a poignant step forward for Beartooth and also a triumphant letter to the person Shomo is becoming.
“I had two paths,” he explains. “It was either make this record, this one I knew I had to make, or bow out and make a record because I was too scared to make the real thing. What this record is to me is me making the definitive choice that I am done settling in my life. That I am done being afraid of what other people will think of who I am. About what other people will think of my art, how it affects my career.”
Stretching his arms out, Shomo lets out a happy sigh when thinking about how the release of this album signals an arrival of the person and artist he’s always known he could be.
“The point of it was to prove to myself that it is worth it. It is worth it to do the scary thing, to be yourself, to be authentic,” he says.
“To use the short ride on this planet to do my favourite thing in the world, which is to use music as my medium to translate what I’m going through. To translate my emotions. I can speak music way better than I can speak English. I can convey things with music way better than I can convey it in any other way. I hope it can continue to leave me with more of a sense of pride.”
The warm grin returns.
“It was time. It was yes or no, and thank the good Lord I said yes. And it feels so fucking good.”
