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GRAVITON Explores Pandemic-Era Despair on First Single
Pandemic-era despair fuels GRAVITON’s technical thrash attack
New England thrash metal band GRAVITON will release its self-titled second full-length album on November 13 via Skepsis Recordings. The album’s first single, ‘Dissent Into Madness’, is now available on digital platforms. The track draws on the social disintegration and sense of isolation that drummer and lyricist Apollo Medaglia witnessed during the pandemic.
Medaglia describes the song’s starting point as sitting in a basement during the pandemic, watching the world fall apart in real time through a phone screen and feeling hopeless about the future. While the musician acknowledges that it remains unclear whether society can collectively rise to the occasion, he says the band channels that uncertainty through fast, technically demanding guitar passages.
Since 2015, GRAVITON have developed an approach rooted in the New England metal scene, combining classic thrash metal foundations with a more extreme and technical sound. “Graviton”, the band’s second full-length, also marks their first album for Skepsis Recordings. Its eight tracks bring together the musical direction the band have shaped onstage and in the studio over more than a decade.
Production and engineering duties were handled by Ray Marte, Apollo Medaglia and Justin Licht, with Marte also taking care of mastering. Guitars, bass and vocals were recorded at The Whiskey Palace in 2024, while the drum recordings and re-amping took place at Westfall Recording Company in New York in August and November of the same year. The album artwork was created by Ryan T. Hancock.
Following ‘Dissent Into Madness’, the album will feature eight tracks in total, including ‘Empire of Pain’, ‘The Oppressor’, ‘Pillars of Life’ and ‘Celestial Mass’. “Graviton” will arrive on November 13 in digital format, as well as on vinyl, CD and cassette. Pre-orders for the limited-edition Empire Gold vinyl pressing are available through the Skepsis Recordings website. Digital and CD pre-orders are expected to become available soon via the band’s Bandcamp page.