Iapetus close with «The Mother Void» the trilogy they opened with their debut. It is the third album from the New York outfit and it was released on 16 October 2026 by Willowtip Records, with Matthew Cerami and Jordan Navarro credited for the music and the lyrics from day one.
Country: USA (New York)
Style: Progressive metal, black metal, melodic death metal, with mixed vocals
For fans of: Ne Obliviscaris, Persefone, Opeth
«The Long Road Home» and «The Body Cosmic» dealt with man and his relationship with the universe, and the finale stays in the same territory. The band writes long, multi-layered songs: drums that never stop at blast beats and double kick, tremolo guitars over the void, and a mix of clean and feral vocals that brings both friction and beauty. Compared with the previous album there is less spoken word and more singing.
Between the explosions there are quiet passages: clean guitars on «The World Be Undone», synths on «Aniara», atmosphere on «TON». The title track shows best how the record works. It starts from Fabienne Erni’s performance in the intro «Parturition», builds on a drum that keeps rising and lands in black tremolo before bursting into a finale where clean and harsh vocals fall over each other. «Red Giant» has a gorgeous flamenco instrumental passage and lyrics that go back and forth, while «TON» opens majestically, reaches one of the band’s best solos and then turns into a heavy groove that recalls Gojira.
The line-up is Jordan Navarro (guitars, keys) and Matthew Cerami (guitars, vocals, bass), with guests Fabienne Erni on vocals, Brody Taylor Smith on drums, Mark Lazeski on keys and effects, Frank Harper on vocals and Benjamin Baret on the guitar of «TON». The artwork is by Vanessa Lemen and Alex Eckman-Lawn.
Our take
It is a big record that asks for time and attention. When the band finds the balance between size and restraint, the result is impressive: the title track and «Aniara» stand beside the best things they have written. The problem is that some quiet passages work as bridges between ideas rather than as standalone pieces, and «TON» feels like two songs stitched together. Even so, what it loses in coherence it gains in boldness: few bands in progressive death metal write with such ease at this scale.
