(written by Islander)
Four years ago we had the extreme pleasure of premiering the title track from Transmigrator, the then-forthcoming fourth album from the Boston-based death metal band Graveborn. That album was a significant step in the band’s ongoing evolution in their musical approach, a steadily progressing shift away from their deathcore roots and into a more stylistically multi-faceted and even more thrilling (but still brutalizing) experience.
Four years later, it’s clear that Graveborn haven’t stopped moving. Where their increasingly inventive momentum has led them is reflected in a new single we’re premiering today, presented through a fascinating animated video. Named “Temporal Sands,” this new song is a head-spinner of a high order — and a brutal bone-smasher too.
Graveborn launch the song in immediately arresting fashion, discharging bursts of bludgeoning rhythm-section fire and monstrous guttural proclamations, but coupling that with weirdly squirming and darting riffage. Gentle glinting tones then create a sudden break, and that marks the start of further changes to come.
The jolting percussive barrage continues, but the vocals explode in hair-raising howls and terrorizing screams, and the fleet-fingered guitars brilliantly sparkle, creating aural visions of stellar wonder. Near the mid-point everything in the song soars to an accelerated crescendo of eye-popping intensity.
The opening riff returns, and it turns out to be a hook-y as well as a menacing presence. And the music as a whole begins to sound more menacing as well, still otherworldly in the upper reaches of the fretwork but also more dark and distressing.
The throughline of the song as a whole is a combination of divergent experiences. The rhythm section provides groovesome but ruthless heaviness, hard enough to punch through walls and jackhammer the rubble, while the guitars frequently take flight, creating brilliant alien traceries in the stratosphere.
Before the song ends, Graveborn continue doing this. They inflict a decelerated sequence of thuggish pounding and cavernous growls (the song’s most brutal phase), but they also spin up the shining and swirling guitars and unleash the screams again — and they end it all with void-like eeriness.
P.S. The lyrics, available at Bandcamp, are head-spinning too.
GRAVEBORN is:
John Leblanc – Vocals
Chris Ramusiewicz – Guitars
Reggie Lewis – Bass
Jesse Blanchette – Guitars
Marc Brennan – Drums
Further Credits: Drums were tracked by Shane Frisby at The Brick Hithouse; reamplification by Ehren Hill and Jesse Blanchette; mixing and mastering by Pete Rutcho at The Brick Hithouse; animation by Anthony Lusk-Simone at Zenbeast Media.
“Temporal Sands” is available to stream and download now via the links below. We’re also sharing with you the band’s video for a previous 2025 single, “Embers of Existence“.
STREAM/DOWNLOAD:
https://gravebornma.bandcamp.com
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4Kobiwt4shq9mzABhTQ7r6
FOLLOW:
https://linktr.ee/gravebornma
https://www.facebook.com/gravebornma