True to their name, Temic are a dream come true for prog fans. The supergroup features current and former members of Devin Townsend, Mike Portnoy’s Shattered Fortress, Neal Morse Band, Haken, Shining and Maraton. In 2023, they quickly lived up to their billing when their debut album Terror Management Theory reached #15 on the iTunes Worldwide Metal chart.
Now, as they come closer to announcing their second album, a thunderous ode to grief and loss, ahead of a fall European tour with very special guest and Season of Mist labelmates Kingcrow, today, Temic are releasing a new single. Recorded live at Poppodium Boerderij in Zoetermeer, Netherlands, during their 2025 European co-headline tour, fan-favorite “Skeletons” gets the crowd’s blood pumping by putting the band’s extraordinary chemistry on full display.
“We love playing live. For us, each show is a real occasion where the music truly comes alive and the connection between the band and audience becomes something special”, Temic says. “This live performance of “Skeletons” is a snapshot of that moment. We can’t wait to get back on stage and share more nights like this with our audience. We’ll even have new music to share”.
Temic Autumnal Offerings 2026 European Tour with very special guests Kingcrow:
October 17 – Toulouse, FR @ Ready For Prog Festival October 18 – Pratteln, CH @ Z7 October 19 – Munich, DE @ Backstage October 20 – Maastricht, NL @ Muziekgieterij October 21 – Paris, FR @ Backstage By The Mill October 22 – Rüsselsheim, DE @ Das Rind October 24 – Toruń, PL @ Art Rock Festival
More dates to be announced soon.
With its 7-minute runtime, “Skeletons” gives Temic the opportunity to stretch out and flex their well-trained muscles. Right from the jump, the band’s individual talents complement each other with impressive ease. Keyboardist Diego Tejeida and guitarist Eric Gillette exchange haunting melodies and heavy riffs. After crushing through the first chorus, drummer Simen Sandnes and bassist Miguel Pereira lock into an unexpectedly funky groove.
“We could have had it all”, vocalist Fredrik Bergersen Klemp belts in harmony with Gillette. As the stakes rise during the song’s fiery finale, it’s clear to the Boerderij’s packed crowd that Temic have everything a prog fan could want.
Last December, adopting the trend of playing albums in their entirety, veteran thrashers Death Angel hit the road for a three-week trek across the States to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the release of their third full-length album, their first on a major label, the ingeniously entitled Act III. The band deemed the public reaction to that short tour, “Very humbling and so fulfilling.” So much so that they chose to replicate it with a full nationwide tour.
Death Angel
The Observatory, Santa Ana, California – 19 June 2026
Words And Photography: Matt Roberts
Act III marked a huge turning point in the Death Angel songwriting career, proving for the first time that there was much more than just a Thrash Metal string to their bow.
Elements such as funk rock, vocal melodies and acoustic guitar, virtually unheard of at the time in the world of Thrash, were thrown into the mixer proving beyond a doubt that they had matured from the bunch of high school kids who had formed the band eight years earlier into a group of accomplished musicians who had to be taken seriously.
Death Angel – The Observatory, Santa Ana – 19 June 2026. Photo: Matt Roberts/MetalTalk
This performance, the third from last stop of a 35-date trek, saw them arrive at the near full house 1,200 capacity Santa Ana Observatory, situated 30 miles from Los Angeles, with support from the pre-Xmas jaunt, Phoenix’s Incite, led by Max Cavalera’s stepson Richie, and ’80s Bay Area Thrash buddies Vio-lence, once again on board.
Incite – The Observatory, Santa Ana – 19 June 2026. Photo: Matt Roberts/MetalTalk
A short, sharp and very heavy set from Incite was followed by the more Punky Oi Oi influenced Vio-lence, fronted by manically staring, battle jacket wearing stalwart Sean Killian.
This served to raise the temperature and blow the cobwebs from the pitters who were starting to circle the floor with increasing enthusiasm in anticipation of the headliners who hit the stage at 9:20 pm with the full force of a pneumatic battering ram.
Vio-Lence – The Observatory, Santa Ana – 19 June 2026. Photo: Matt Roberts/MetalTalk
Seemingly Endless Time hits hard on vinyl as a record opener, but in the live environment, it is, quite simply, breathtaking. Sole remaining founder-member Rob Cavestanys opening riff moving along at breakneck speed, accompanied by his second cousin, vocalist Mark Osegueda, defying his 57 years by shaking his mane in perfect unison. It is quite an introduction.
There is simply no let-up as Death Angel launch straight into Stop, another riff-oriented barnstormer, powered along by the rhythm section of beanpole bassist Damien Sissons and the thunderous if unorthodox drumming of Will Carroll.
Death Angel – The Observatory, Santa Ana – 19 June 2026. Photo: Matt Roberts/MetalTalk
Carroll was described by Osegueda later during his band introductions as “The meanest motherfucker in the building.” He looks it, too.
It instantly becomes obvious, as would be expected after five weeks on the road, that the band is operating at the peak of its powers, and it is almost a relief to the senses when, upon the song’s conclusion, the stage tech brings out an acoustic guitar on a stand and plonks it in front of rhythm guitarist Ted Aguilar.
Aguilar promptly strums the intro bars to Veil Of Deception before the rest of the band kick in, in electrical accompaniment.
Death Angel – The Observatory, Santa Ana – 19 June 2026. Photo: Matt Roberts/MetalTalk
The engaging Osegueda is one of Metal’s more talkative frontmen. He likes to talk, and he thanks the audience on numerous occasions throughout the evening, not just for turning up tonight but for supporting the Metal music that has enabled him and his bandmates to have lived the life they live.
“We’re a metal community,” he announces, “Thank you all SO, SO much.” His words sound wholeheartedly genuine.
Death Angel – The Observatory, Santa Ana – 19 June 2026. Photo: Matt Roberts/MetalTalk
A Room With A View, a haunting ballad about life through the eyes of a blind man (if that’s possible) and one of the album’s two singles, sees Cavestany take over lead vocal duties before Osegueda joins in a duet.
It is a welcome chance for the audience to recover their senses and offers a welcome temporary respite from the nuclear blast.
The rest of the album, including the funky thumb slap bass intro of Disturbing The Peace, flies by in a blur of shaking heads, flailing limbs and devil horns before the band depart the stage for a much-needed brief hydration break, returning, as Osequeda announces, to play a selection of cuts from the rest of their catalogue.
Death Angel – The Observatory, Santa Ana – 19 June 2026. Photo: Matt Roberts/MetalTalk
First up is the Grammy-nominated title track from their most recently released full-length recording, 2019’s fan favourite Humanicide, which succeeds in whipping the crowd into even more of a frenzy than they were before the break.
Cult Of The Used, the single released to coincide with last year’s short pre-Christmas tour, is next up, and if this is an indication of the standard of material currently being written for a new album expected later this year, then we are all in for a real treat.
It is another colossal Cavestany riff that powers along like a runaway steam train and is followed by two cuts from 2016’s The Evil Divide, The Moth, and Lost, described by Osegueda as “A very personal song about being a weird child, a weird teenager, a weird adult just trying to get by doing what you love.”
Death Angel – The Observatory, Santa Ana – 19 June 2026. Photo: Matt Roberts/MetalTalk
With this being Death Angels’ first national headline tour since the fall of 2019, most present will have grown accustomed to seeing only support-length sets, so with the clock well past 11 pm, they are all likely expecting the performance to conclude.
A brief onstage conversation between Cavestany and the singer, however, ends with him announcing that, as a thank you and because they are having so much fun, they are going to play an extra song that is not even on the setlist.
He asks the audience, “Are you physically up to the challenge?” and gets his answer when every single person in the building roars their confirmation.
Death Angel – The Observatory, Santa Ana – 19 June 2026. Photo: Matt Roberts/MetalTalk
A huge grin spreads across his face as his bandmates burst into Mistress Of Pain from their 1987 debut The Ultra-Violence, and the evening draws to a conclusion with another fan favourite, Thrown To The Wolves, lifted from 2004’s The Art of Dying.
After a short break to recharge their batteries, Death Angel head over to Europe for a series of summer dates including a single UK appearance at Bloodstock Open Air.
Album Review: Witchsorrow – The Devil And All His Works
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
With bells tolling, a creepy organ rings out menacingly, before an almighty doom riff and pounding rhythm punctures your inner soul in search of a foreboding darkness. Yes, it can only be one thing, and that’s the beginning of the fifth offering from the doom metal obsessives known at Witchsorrow.
Their latest album, “The Devil and All His Works” has taken the lyrics and title from an occult book by Dennis Wheatley, as vocalist/guitarist Nick Ruskell, better known as Necroskull, said that “everything had to be total doom”. The mammoth first song “Omnia Finiuntur” is a weighty, beastly piece of music, and if you’ve ever seen them live, you know that this is one band who always deliver on the heavier side of things.
With Emily Ruskell on bass, the duo has produced another album that fans of doom metal and the occult will adore, as the next song “Bacchus” emphasises further, as it celebrates the “joy of decadence and sin” and doesn’t stray from their winning formula of the last two decades. They have a new drummer firmly in place, Scott “Doom” Taylor, and the rhythm is at is dark and gloomy best on this bruiser of a track. They are joined by Svalbard’s Serena Cherry on “Hades Chains” as she adds her roaring fury to the scintillating song, which is lit up by a decadent head banging riff that flows across the heavy track and one you’ll never tire of listening to.
The pace gets slower on “Altar” as a huge bass sound bounces around the mix, doing untold damage to your eardrums in the meantime. There are cleaner vocals from Necroskull embedded here, adding some subtlety into the song, as they cast their spell far and wide. The frontman commented he “wanted everything to be as pure as possible” and they are certainly hitting all the right notes, especially during the full blooded “In Triumph We Rot!!!” as they sing about their dedication and passion to everything doom metal.
“Lamentation” deviates from their usual lengthy song times, at just under two minutes, but is a joyous blend of dramatic drums, brooding bass and gritty guitars with a layered monologue over the top, that leads into final track, “A Quintessence of Dust”. It’s another sinister sounding track, featuring some shredding from Employed To Serve’s Sammy Urwin, which adds a different dimension to the song. It encapsulates the dark forces that surround the entire production and is the perfect way to end as the riff is killer, heavy and ready to tear you a new one.
New music from prog supergroup coming soon ahead of European headline tour with labelmates Kingcrow TEMIC, the prog supergroup featuring current and former members of Devin Townsend, Mike Portnoy’s Shattered Fortress, Neal Morse Band, Haken, SHINING, and Maraton, have released a live version of fan-favorite: “Skeletons.” Recorded at Poppodium Boerderij in Zoetermeer, Netherlands during their […]
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