TEMIC Announce Ceiba, Share "Ceased to Be" Video
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TEMIC, the international progressive metal supergroup featuring current and former members of Devin Townsend, Mike Portnoy's Shattered Fortress, The Neal Morse Band, Haken, Shining, Maraton and Big City, have announced their second album, Ceiba, alongside the release of lead single and video "Ceased to Be." The album arrives October 2nd, 2026 via Season of Mist.
Rattled by the encroaching shadow of death, "Ceased to Be" crosses the threshold between progressive metal, pop and hard rock, cracked open by guitarist Eric Gillette's booming riffs and an electronic soundscape that rumbles like clouds on the horizon. "'Ceased to Be' is told from the perspective of someone who's dying, while surrounded by their loved ones," TEMIC says. "Death is not feared nor resisted. Rather, it is observed as a sacred rite of passage." The accompanying video, filmed on the Yucatán Peninsula beneath a Ceiba tree and inside a cenote, carries that idea into ritual: Ah Puch, the Mayan god of death, welcomes a woman into the afterlife. "Representing all the joy and pain of life, its transformation after death, and the relief of letting go in absolute surrender resonated with me immediately," says actress Anna Kirse, who filmed the video's underwater sequences despite a longstanding fear of submersion. "It was a beautiful artistic challenge."
Ceiba is TEMIC's second full-length and, like its predecessor, is rooted in loss. In Mayan culture, the Ceiba tree is considered an axis mundi connecting the earth, heaven and the underworld, a structure the band uses to trace grief through its many forms: anger, blame, silence, and eventually renewal. "Ceiba is a concept album about loss in all its various forms," the band says. "While more progressive than our first album, the songs are driven by honesty and emotions." The album was recorded with drums and lead vocals tracked at Lionheart Studio in Oslo, Norway, following the momentum of TEMIC's 2023 debut, Terror Management Theory.
"Ceased to Be" is out now, with pre-order and pre-save open for Ceiba ahead of its October 2nd release. TEMIC will perform the single and other new Ceiba material this fall on a European headline run with Season of Mist label mates Kingcrow.
Track list:
1. Asunder (1:35)
2. Ashes (4:55)
3. Beyond the Voice (3:58)
4. Ceased To Be (6:26)
5. Broken (4:45)
6. Casting Stone (9:16)
7. See Myself (6:38)
8. Parting the Waves Inside (7:24)
9. Night of Veils (3:38)
10. Alone (7:02)
11. As Long As We Last (10:21)
Long before they appeared like a dream come true to prog fans around the world in 2023, already, the members of TEMIC had made a real name for themselves. The international supergroup features current and former members of Devin Townsend, Mike Portnoy’s Shattered Fortress, Neal Morse Band, Haken, Shining and Maraton. Having topped charts in the Netherlands and reaching #15 on the iTunes Worldwide Metal chart, their full-length debut certainly lived up to the hype. But they've grown by leaps and bounds on Ceiba, their mighty and magical second album.
The concept behind TEMIC started in 2017, when keyboardist Diego Tejeida and guitarist Eric Gillette were both touring members of Mike Portnoy’s Shattered Fortress. After proving to be a quick fit on stage, the two decided to start their own band together. “We wanted to make music that prided itself on emotion, not just because it’s technically difficult to play”, Tejeida says. As for what the band would sound like, combining their love for heavy riffs, heavenly pop hooks and high-energy electronic music into a hard-hitting prog-metal hybrid wasn’t so simple. But after recruiting former soccer prodigy-turned-Zildjian-endorsed drummer Simen Sandnes to go along with Norwegian Idol contestant and powerhouse vocalist Fredrik Bergersen Klemp, TEMIC put all the pieces together on their very first try.
Now, after a co-headline tour of Europe with Rendezvous Point and a splashy appearance aboard Cruise to the Edge, TEMIC are back in full bloom with Ceiba.
