Beartooth's Pure Ecstasy Drops Friday: Periphery's Misha Mansoor Helped Write It
Caleb Shomo writes and records every Beartooth track himself, but this time a genuine djent icon was in the room. Here's the ESP signature guitar, the tuning, and the strings behind it.
By Animus, Extended range & djent desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Beartooth releases its sixth album, Pure Ecstasy, on August 28, 2026, its first for Fearless Records. Frontman Caleb Shomo, who writes and records every Beartooth instrumental himself, built the title track in the studio with Periphery's Misha Mansoor and producer Jordan Fish. Shomo's main guitar is his ESP LTD CS-II signature, factory-strung with D'Addario EXL110 (.010-.046), though his documented drop-tuning approach calls for a heavier low string.
Pure Ecstasy drops Friday, with a Periphery cameo
Beartooth's sixth studio album, Pure Ecstasy, arrives August 28, 2026 via Fearless Records (Kerrang), the band's first release since signing with the label and the follow-up to 2023's The Surface.
The credit that stands out is the title track. It doubles as the album opener, and Periphery's Misha Mansoor was in the room when it came together, alongside producer Jordan Fish.
Pure Ecstasy was birthed in a studio with Misha Mansoor, ridiculous loudspeakers, and the dumbest heaviest chugs we could chug. Once it was brought home and expanded on with Jordan Fish, there was no question it was the album opener. Play loud and kick ass.
Frontman, Beartooth
It's a genuine genre crossover worth pausing on. Guitar World has described Beartooth as a "melodic hardcore punk outfit," while Mansoor built his name in djent and progressive metal as the founding guitarist of extended-range specialists Periphery. Two different corners of heavy music, one chugging title track.
The ESP LTD CS-II: Caleb Shomo's signature guitar
On record, Beartooth is essentially a one-man operation. Guitar World has established that Shomo writes, performs, records, and mixes every instrumental part himself, which makes his own signature guitar the closest thing to an official Beartooth spec sheet that exists. ESP's LTD CS-II, based on the company's Phoenix body shape, is that guitar.
- Model
- ESP LTD CS-II (Caleb Shomo signature)
- Construction
- Neck-through-body
- Scale length
- 25.5 inch
- Body
- Mahogany wings, quilted maple top
- Neck
- 3-piece mahogany, thin U contour
- Fingerboard
- Macassar ebony, 350mm radius
- Frets
- 22 extra-jumbo stainless steel
- Bridge pickup
- Seymour Duncan Custom 14 (ESP exclusive, splittable)
- Neck pickup
- Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound
- Hardware
- Gold, Gotoh TOM bridge and tailpiece, LTD locking tuners
- Factory strings
- D'Addario EXL110, .010-.046
- Price
- $1,799 with hardshell case
That factory string spec is worth sitting with. The CS-II ships in a completely standard nickel gauge, not a heavy drop-tuned set, even though Shomo's own playing history leans on lower tunings.
Drop E flat, and the strings that actually fit it
In a 2021 Guitar World interview about Below, Shomo described swapping his usual Drop D for what he calls drop E flat: tuning the whole guitar up a half step from Drop D so the low string lands on Eb instead of D. His reasoning was about tension, not just pitch. "So many people think that going lower means that you're going to get more low end, and that's just absolutely not the case," he told Guitar World. "It's about finding where the tight low end is." Going lower than that, he said, into Drop C or Drop B territory, started to feel "woofy" and "a little lost."
Beartooth hasn't published an exact tuning for Pure Ecstasy, so treat drop E flat as Shomo's documented habit rather than a confirmed spec for this record. But the tension logic holds regardless of which drop tuning you land on, and it's the same math CYS's own Drop D guide walks through: a standard .010-.046 set works fine for light use, but a heavier low string keeps the tuned-down chug tight instead of floppy.
| Set | Gauges | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D'Addario EXL110 (CS-II factory set) | .010-.046 | Standard and Eb standard, light drop-tuned use | |
| Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy Bottom Slinky Cobalt | .010-.052 | Drop D and a half step either side, tighter low end |
If you're recreating the factory CS-II setup, D'Addario's EXL110 is the exact stock gauge. If you're chasing the tighter, heavier-bottom sound Shomo himself describes for actual drop-tuned riffing, CYS's metal string comparison points to the same hybrid gauge the Drop D guide recommends: a .052 sixth string instead of .046, everything else unchanged.
Why a djent icon shows up on a metalcore record
Misha Mansoor co-founded Periphery in 2005 and has spent two decades building extended-range, low-tuned progressive metal on his own Jackson signature guitars and his own Horizon Devices strings. He doesn't need the work. That he turned up in Shomo's studio to help write a riff says more about the two scenes' overlap than any press release would.
It also fits a pattern CYS tracks closely: heavy music's subgenres, metalcore, djent, deathcore, post-hardcore, keep trading personnel and ideas even when their fanbases stay fairly separate. A metalcore band's frontman pulling in a djent guitarist for one chugging riff is a small story, but it's the kind of small story that tells you where the two scenes actually meet.
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