Rosetta "Temporal Lapse" CD

For more than two decades, Rosetta have developed a distinctive blend of heaviness and atmosphere, weaving the physical force of metal and hardcore and the spaciousness textuality of ambient music. After a hiatus filled with turbulent years, they return as bold and adventurous as ever with ‘Temporal Lapse’.

“In late 2019 when we began working on the songs, we intended to focus on climate change. As we explored that concept, we became interested in the grief / loss dimension of environmental destruction -- essentially, the human experience of loss as nature gives way to something else. However, in 2020 the pandemic stopped the whole process cold, and it took years to get started again. In that time, a lot of personal grief and loss happened. I lost my house to a fire in 2022. Eric and I both lost our dads. Rather than looking at climate change through the lens of grief and loss, we ended up looking at personal grief and loss through the imagery of climate change and apocalypse.“ (Matt Weed)

Though long awaited, Rosetta’s album ‘Temporal Lapse’ shows a band in the full bloom of their maturity. The album is one of resilience and passion, evoking our personal and shared tribulations through their signature synthesis of vulnerability and power. A fuller wall of sound is reached in the harmonies and crushing flights, heavier passages are increasingly intertwined with melodic and textural elements, along with cleaner vocal approaches, electronics and more elaborate guitar arrangements, all create a greater contrast within the compositions.

“We have always begun with a concept and written music first, then lyrics after the arrangements are complete. The whole process is collaborative -- no single person owns any individual element of the writing. That has stayed the same on this release.“ (Matt Weed)

Vocalist and electronics musician Mike Armine is a source of raw intensity, cutting through the band's densest passages and functioning as another layer within the music's wider atmosphere. His use of samples and electronic elements introduces additional depth and ambiguity, expanding the band's palette. David Grossman on bass provides much of the band's low-frequency foundation. His playing reinforces the physical weight of the guitars while contributing to the movement and tonal character, both he and Eric Jernigan add a bittersweet vocal contrast, and Jernigan’s guitar work allows the band to build more intricate relationships between melodic lines. Then there is the backbone, Bruce McMurtrie’s rapid, dynamic percussion that both serves and sustains. 

“We took a full week doing drums in a 1920s stone church sanctuary outside Philadelphia, leaning heavily on the incredible acoustics of that space. Incidentally, that church building is where the very first Rosetta rehearsal happened in June 2003! It felt good to come back around and use that building again. We did guitars and bass a month later (August 2024) at the Radar Studio in Connecticut, owned by Will Benoit from Pelagic labelmates SOM. Then there was another long hiatus after the birth of my son. We finally got together to write and record all the vocals in Austin Texas in December of 2025, which took ten days.“ (Matt Weed)

Rosetta exhibits the ability to both obliterate and to intoxicate. ‘The Pale Cast Of Thought’ is heavy, intense and weighted with desperation. ‘Dvora’ creates tension through hypnotic melody, pre-battle drums and the rising swell of distortion, turning smokey and shadowy with the help of Johnny Dang of the band O'brother on slide guitar, piano, and synths. Finally we have ‘Ribbon Of Dawn’. Beginning in a raging, thrashing blaze, the track switches into an idyllically tinged hopefulness, vibrant and hypnotic, until the melodies complexify and grow heavy and charge toward the threshold.

“In terms of the question "how do I deal with loss?" -- we landed on this dichotomy of shattering vs shaping experiences. Staying the same person you were before a major loss isn't actually possible. So in the middle of all those facets of grieving, you have to keep asking yourself: will I be shattered or shaped by this experience?“ (Matt Weed)

Temporal Lapse brings the density, volume and scope that has always characterised Rosetta, while continuingly exploring a sense of space, melody and reflection. Through emotional clarity and the curation of its nuance, they achieve the human contradiction of being enormous and intimate, abrasive and beautiful, turbulent and meditative.

“This is the final album. We're not breaking up; there's always openness to doing interesting things together in the future. But even as far back as 2019, we intended to release one more full length as a capstone, do a "victory lap" tour around the world, and then be done with Rosetta as it existed before.“ (Matt Weed)

FOR FANS OF: Isis* Cult of Luna * Bossk * SOM * O'Brother * Mouth of the Architect * Year Of No Light