TEMIC have announced "Ceiba," their second album, due October 2 via Season Of Mist. The international progressive metal project also unveiled lead single "Ceased To Be" alongside the announcement.
The band draws its personnel from an unusually deep bench: current and former members connected to Devin Townsend's touring circle, Mike Portnoy's Shattered Fortress, the Neal Morse Band, HAKEN, SHINING, MARATON and BIG CITY. The "Ceiba" lineup is Fredrik Klemp on vocals, Eric Gillette on guitars and backing vocals, Diego Tejeida on keyboards and sound design, Simen Sandnes on drums and Miguel Pereira on bass.
The album takes its name from the ceiba, the sacred tree of Mayan cosmology that connects the earth, the heavens and the underworld — a fitting frame for a record the band describes as an examination of loss in all its dimensions. TEMIC say "Ceiba" is "more progressive than our first album" while remaining driven by emotion rather than technique for its own sake, working through "pain, anger, fear, blame and silence" as stages of a personal renewal.
Keyboardist Diego Tejeida put the concept plainly. "Though we don't often talk about them with each other, loss is so universal that it will always be a natural part of our lives, like a tree," he said.
The video for "Ceased To Be" was directed by Cesar Mendiburu and shot in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, filmed beneath a real ceiba tree and inside a cenote — the flooded limestone sinkholes the Maya considered gateways to the underworld. It is a rare case of a concept album's central metaphor being filmed at its actual source rather than approximated in a studio.
The eleven-track album runs:
- "Asunder" (1:35)
- "Ashes" (4:55)
- "Beyond The Voice" (3:58)
- "Ceased To Be" (6:26)
- "Broken" (4:45)
- "Casting Stone" (9:16)
- "See Myself" (6:38)
- "Parting The Waves Inside" (7:24)
- "Night Of Veils" (3:38)
- "Alone" (7:02)
- "As Long As We Last" (10:21)
The sequencing saves the two longest and most ambitious pieces for the back half.
"Ceiba" follows TEMIC's debut and a live version of fan favourite "Skeletons" issued in June.
Watch the music video for "Ceased To Be" on the Season Of Mist YouTube channel.