Graveborn - Metempsychosis

Graveborn's “Metempsychosis,” is an interesting album. The progressive death metal influences are obvious but it is also infused with deathcore. This is their fifth album; they have also released a demo and an EP.

The result is a prog album that sounds slick and modern, forgoing stuffy and pretentious elements that hit hard and fast while still being free flowing. Breakdowns are plenty but unlike a lot of other deathcore bands, the songs aren't centered around them but are just another tool they can pull from to pieces the songs together. 

Opening song “Embers of Existence,” shows how quickly the band can create urgency and also how quickly transition to tight, heavy riffs while layering them with infectious melodies. The chorus is a banger too, I love the melodic guitar and double bass hitting at the same time to showcase two different approaches that work together for the song.

The slow to mid tempo at the halfway point is just as engaging; Graveborn doesn't always need to go fast as fuck or bulldoze to get their point across. Sometimes painting a more meticulous musical picture is the better approach and this song handles with a lot of attention and care for the details.

Offering crushing, core influenced riffs among ambient textures and progressive structures is what this album does and “Temporal Sands,” is one of the best songs that embraces this direction. One one fell swoop, the band goes from melodic, to alien voids, then back around to abrasive riffs. The last moments of the song even throw in deep, dissonant riffs.

It's never easy to use drums to make atmosphere but it might be easy for this band because they nail on the opening of the title song. This song is fleeting and floaty but dense and full of wonderment. Like floating up to the sky and seeing it transition from day to the bleakness of space, this song gets darker and more dangerous as it goes. 

A ton of kick ass riffs rip through before being sounded into the past by the never ending rhythm machine. The vocals growl and scream with fervor, leading the song through a gauntlet.

“Epistatic Drift,” has such an awesome feel to the beginning…a sort of uneasy calm. Then hell breaks loose—the whole band settle into a proggy jam, a flashy groove that propels the song into a trippy/psychedelic ambient piece that feels like a natural extension of the beginning while dealing with the aftermath of the heavier passages that proceeded it.

The desperate, clawing vocals and the urgency of “Orthologs,” make it a banger of an ending song. The action is all rise until about three-fourths of the way when another trippy alien soundscape bridges the gap to the highly adventurous last couple minutes. 

Graveborn's “Metempsychosis” is a modern death metal progfest that will take the listener to many new worlds while also retaining its pummeling death metal foundation. 

Rating: Solid