Style: Progressive Death Metal, Djent, Deathcore (Harsh Vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Rivers of Nihil (early), Netherwalker, Fallujah
Country: USA (MA)
Release date: 13 April 2026

---

The collective spirit of humanity is imbued with an insatiable thirst for exploration and discovery. An astronaut sets foot on the moon; an archaeologist unearths a paradigm-shifting fossil; a scientist proves a fundamental universal law. Fully dedicating oneself to the pursuit of knowledge and discovery is among the most noble of lives a human can lead. One need only look around themselves to find endless miracles of progress, each a direct result of someone’s voracious curiosity. With Metempsychosis, Graveborn aims to join the esteemed ranks of such visionaries, shedding light on a mystery that has long plagued humanity: what if Fallujah just played boring deathcore?

Look, I’ll just come out and say it: I don’t like this album. It frustrates me. Graveborn are obviously a bunch of talented dudes, so why doesn’t Metempsychosis do anything? I mean, yes, it does a bunch of things—it’s an hour long progressive death metal record for chrissake. But after more than a handful of focused listens, I’m left with perhaps five to ten minutes of memorable, quality material. The other 50 minutes? In one ear, out the other.

Therein lies Metempsychosis’ first problem: its runtime. For every minute of inspired prog death, there are five minutes of poorly done deathcore cliches, banal djent riffing, or just plain questionable songwriting, none of which is helped along by the fatiguing consistency of each track being between five and seven minutes long. Frustratingly enough, the very first steps taken on opener “Embers of Existence” seem to tread towards an interesting tech death flavored destination, only to veer off course not even a minute in. An intricate string skipping riff acts as a sort of ostinato, against which drummer Zach Brody provides rhythmic flair with fills and accents before it’s all abruptly cut short by djent-y deathcore chugs, never to return in quite the same capacity. The rest of the track is five minutes of tired riffing, or mid-tempo chugging superimposed upon uninspiring lead guitar melodies or cliché atmospheric piano. Each of the following ten tracks more or less suffer from the same problem: brief flashes of inspiration surrounded by minutes of tedium, resulting in a bloated, unjustified runtime. 

Such tedium is unfortunately exacerbated even further by Metempsychosis’ production and performances. I’m reminded of Rivers of Nihil’s debut release: The Conscious Seed of Light, which showcased a warm, organic production job that was both at odds with and complimentary of the record’s mechanical death metal performances. Metempsychosis boasts a similar dichotomy, though it lacks the energy or finesse which allows the contradiction to resolve in dialectical harmony, leaving only frustration in its wake. Graveborn sound tired. Compositions mostly stick to a trodding mid-tempo; performances lack any sense of urgency; and the production files down any teeth that may have remained. All the listener is left with are vague gestures towards genre styles without ever really getting to the heart of what makes any of them exciting. Performances lack death metal’s energy and ferocity, while the compositional structure and pacing are too long winded for effective deathcore breakdowns. The production is not nearly punchy enough for the djent riffs which lack a focus on groove anyway, and there is a distinct lack of dynamic variety or willingness to stray far from the sonic foundation for any exciting progressive metal twists. 

And I can get specific with these grievances. “Temporal Sands” sounds like Fallujah if they didn’t understand that the soaring leads were an integral part of their sound. The production for this track in particular seemingly insists on muting the leads near the point of inaudibility, leaving only uninspired djents and deathcore chugs behind. The bouncy djent riff about two minutes into “Idols of Bone” clashes with the lead guitar melody, the composition coming off particularly amateurish. “The Archaea Paradox” even features a comical ‘blegh’ that sounds as if the vocalist is out of breath before he even begins, adding on an entire extra syllable as if trying to compensate for being caught off guard that his part came up so quickly!

Ahem. I’ve perhaps been a bit harsh up to this point in the review. I mentioned earlier that Metempsychosis frustrates me, despite the obvious talent of the group behind it, and I want to reiterate that distinction. While Graveborn certainly haven’t produced the prog death equivalent of the moon landing, there are plenty of climaxes and quality sections littered throughout Metempsychosis which demand attention. “Paralogs” features one of the most energetic drum performances on the record, kicking the song off on a strong note and more or less continuing the quality the entire track, and “Orthologs” injects a healthy dose of mathcore, ramping the energy up even further. My favorite, though, is the first half of “Epistatic Drift”, which shows off Graveborn’s biggest strength: strong, melody focused progressive death metal riffing. Unfortunately, these standouts just happen to be the exception, not the rule. Metempsychosis is a good enough progressive death metal record held back by unfocused songwriting, lack of dynamics, flat production, homogenous tempos and track lengths, and a plethora of frustration and boredom on my end.

---

Recommended tracks: Embers of Existence, Epistatic Drift, Orthologs
You may also like: Irreversible Mechanism, Inanimate Existence, Bermuda
Final verdict: 4/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Graveborn is:
John Leblanc – Vocals
Jesse Blanchette – Guitar and Vocals
Reggie Lewis – Bass
Marc Brennan – Drums
Chris Ramusiewicz – Guitar