While certain sectors of the metalsphere have to watch out for band members sporting certain unsavory worldviews or taking out aggression on spouses and such, the worst we usually encounter with prog band members is an (un)healthy case of extreme narcissism. So, we settle then often for the drama of a band suddenly seeing members vacate to form new projects, like Mike Portnoy and his on-again off-again Dream Theater play, or the long-drawn release from Obscura-born Obsidious. The new super(ish) group Temic is born of such an upending, with former keys maestro Diego Tejeida relinquishing his long-held seat with Haken for proggier pastures, snagging studio warriors Eric Gillette (Neal Morse Band), Simon Sandnes (Arkentype), Jacob Umansky (Intervals, ex-Ok Goodnight), to fulfill his new vision. Is Temic a prog dream come true or a noodle cooked far beyond al dente?1
Temic deals in a modern amalgamate of progressive metal that aims to startle with a light shake as it runs through grand, sanded choruses with bridged, flamboyant escapades. Utilizing the Tesseract trademarked breathy serenade, fresh voice Fredrik Bergersen (Maraton) shows plenty of prowess in his close-eyed croons—and to be honest, he’s so clean it kind of flies by that he really only has the one mode. Whether the band around him pushes a synth-chunky Voyager bop (“Count Your Losses”) or an R&B to prog slow burn—think Sleep Token but trading the core part for solos with a djenty backing (“Acts of Violence”)—Bergerson can’t escape his lingering, soft vibrato cries for peace and love. Each song in itself though maintains a fairly distinct character, with the intro track “TMT” even functioning as a short but effective overture to sticky the palate before the languishing affair takes off.
Terror Management Theory wears well Bergersen’s saccharine character in the wake of Tejeida’s deeply layered sound design. Gillette may be an impressive guitarist, flashing an off-kilter pentatonic edge that sears both with the heat of a Petrucci (Dream Theater) acolyte (“Skeletons,” “Friendly Fire”) and the wildness of a frantic Gildenlöw (Pain of Salvation) escapade (“Acts of Violence,” “Mothallah”). But more important to the Temic identity, Tejeida uses each track as a showcase for his meticulous synth environments. The cyberpunk vortex that rips open “Count Your Losses,” the hypnotic jingle that signals “Skeletons,”2 the bouncing whoops and breakbeat that propel “Once More”—it’s a wonder that any guitar riff is necessary with everything he lays down with his own fingers and samples. I mildly regret penning earlier this year that “if you’ve never thought that ‘uns uns’ and ‘wub wub’ belong in metal, think again” as Tejeida abuses that kind of build throughout the lengthy run of TMT (“Through the Sands of Time,” “Friendly Fire,” “Once More”), but his tones remain diverse enough to please more often than not.
Given the pedigree of the members involved, it’s a small miracle that Temic presents with a respectable amount of restraint in the instrumental showboating department. However, because the album flows about in a majorly inoffensive manner—bright, punchy mix, and an atmospheric, cinematic attitude—there’s a bit of a tantric, multi-wave conclusion to the affair. With as many chorus bombs that TMT bestows upon its audience, the downtempo, rise and fall of “Acts of Violence” and fiery instrumental “Friendly Fire,” which breaks elegant character for a solo clash against video game battle themes, set the stage nicely for one more big swing. Instead, we get a solid Leprous song sans the Einar-isms (“Paradigm”) and an out-of-place, upbeat rock number (“Once More”) that steal the dramatic tension from the air. It’s true chorus overload.
Temic holds a lot of promise. I’m glad to see Tejeida so freely express his myriad of aggressively toned and shifted bleeps and bloops to his heart’s desire, and for a few choice cuts, this crew comes together for some real knockout prog. But with a focus on delivering well-constructed songs, Temic has delivered too many cuts that follow a predictable structure with not enough weird or surprising breakaways that put pep in its polymetric steps.3 As background to the precise birthing of yet another pivot table or pie chart, Temic will go down smooth as your curated dataset. Terror Management Theory as a whole, unfortunately, has one too many outliers in its clutches to remain a singularly satisfying whole.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: We’ll never know. | Format Reviewed: STREAM :(
Label: Season of Mist | Bandcamp
Websites: temicband.com | temic.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/temicband
Releases Worldwide: November 17th, 2023
