Progressive RockMetal
Season of Mist · 2 October 2026
“Asunder” is a minute and thirty-five seconds of instrumental opening. TEMIC’s debut started with a short piece of the same kind, “TMT”, and here the device comes back to set up “Ashes” (4:54), the album’s third advance single and the first proper song you hear.
“Ceiba” is a concept album about loss. The name comes from the tree that Mayan culture places between the earth, the heavens and the underworld, and the band put it this way: “The songs are driven by honesty and emotions. They deal with pain, anger, fear, blame and silence.” Eleven tracks, sixty-six minutes, three years on from “Terror Management Theory” (2023).
The quintet is Fredrik Klemp on vocals, out of Maraton; Eric Gillette on guitar and backing vocals, from The Neal Morse Band and Mike Portnoy’s Shattered Fortress; Diego Tejeida on keyboards and sound design, formerly of Haken and a touring member with Devin Townsend; Simen Sandnes on drums, from Shining; and Miguel Pereira on bass, from Big City. On “Broken” (4:45) it is Tejeida’s work that runs the track: open synths, a voice treated until it sits halfway between places, and a programmed pulse that never sounds like a kit. On “Alone” (7:02) Gillette’s guitar is left alone twice.
The first five tracks add up to twenty-one and a half minutes; the last six to forty-four. The record asks for your concentration once it has been running a good while, with “Casting Stone” (9:16), “Parting The Waves Inside” (7:23) and “As Long As We Last” (10:21) arriving almost back to back. The middle one holds up least: seven long minutes circling material the other two settle better, and between them “Night of Veils” (3:38) works as a breather more than as a song.
The label has pressed it on four different coloured double vinyls.
Rating: 8.0/10
Text by Guillem Cardós