This is the third studio album by British tech metallers, Tesseract. This album saw the return of their original vocalist, Daniel Tompkins, who left the band after the first album. Although they started with all the djent bands, they have refined their sound which has made them quite a unique band. The low end is still a big feature, but now there are a lot more ambient and melodic sounds to the music. They are masters of odd time signatures (often multiple times within songs), this makes them a fantastic band to listen as the groove changes constantly.
The opening track, Dystopia, has a deliciously evil choppy groove with some serious low end riffing. Those time changes and off beat grooves will have your brain scrambling. Hexes starts with a very ambient intro, until the song builds with an epic choppy bass groove and a great vocal from Tompkins. Survival carries on where the previous song finished with that choppy bass pattern carrying the tune along. I bet the band were glad to have Dan back in the band as the light tones to his vocal style really make the music pop.
Over to Side 2 with Tourniquet, and this is a beautiful light (almost) ambient piece with a very delicate vocal, until the end of the song where the heavy low end returns. If I had to describe Tesseract’s sound, I would point everyone in the direction of the next track, Utopia. Everything about the band is here in this one song, the choppy bass heavy groove, the odd time beat with D-tuned guitars. and sprinklings of ambient keys. Phoenix closes out Side 2 and its all about the melody and harmonies for me. Great track!
Side 3 leads off with the lead off single from the album, Messenger, and it’s the heaviest piece so far and a nod to the style of their previous albums. Cages is the next to last track and the ambient soundscapes return, before the odd time meter kicks in with a superb bass line. Seven Names closes out the album as Side 4 is a dreaded etched side. The change to a more lighter shade to the band’s music serves them well as this a really good album.
9/10 from The Grooveman.
