TesseracT

[lonestar]

Polaris was solid, Sonder was a step down.

Nah, opposite for me. The only problems I have with Sonder are that it's too short and it doesn't have much of an ending. I'd rank it next to Altered State because while Altered State has an amazing first half, Sonder is more consistent throughout.

Polaris is boring as hell. There's only like three songs from it I like.

Totally agree with the too short critique, probably why I didn't really dig it much.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

@Fritzinger:  Your story is really similar to mine.  They just came out at a bad time for me, where as djent was blowing up I was starting to get away from proggy/techy metal for awhile, so while I heard the album and liked it, I just didn't spend any time with it back then.  I'm so glad I finally made it back around to them though, they've rapidly become one of my favorite bands.

Polaris and Sonder are more uneven than One and Altered State, but they still have some gems on them, and I could see the lesser tracks growing more on me eventually as well.  But revisiting One summer last year for the first time in almost a decade was one of the most impressive listening sessions I've had in years.  Those are the moments I always crave in music, to find the next great band, and sometimes it turns out to be one that was right under your nose all this time (and even crazier since I'd already even seen them live, but long before I could fully appreciate it). 

[Lethean]

I really love Sonder.  I agree that it's short, but sometimes I then just listen to it twice. 

[Fritzinger]

Polaris was solid, Sonder was a step down.

Nah, opposite for me. The only problems I have with Sonder are that it's too short and it doesn't have much of an ending. I'd rank it next to Altered State because while Altered State has an amazing first half, Sonder is more consistent throughout.

Polaris is boring as hell. There's only like three songs from it I like.

Totally agree with the too short critique, probably why I didn't really dig it much.

I think the second half of Altered State is awesome too. The opening three-parter is amazing on its own and Nocturne has the album's catchiest chorus- But Altered State has some great things in store during its second half as well, like the unexpected saxophone solo during Calabi-Yau.

I understand the criticism that Sonder is very short, though I have not listened to it and can't say if it "feels" short to me. There are some great albums that have the same length though, like Yes' Drama, several Gentle Giant albums or A Love Supreme. But if those albums are composed and thought through well, 35 minuted can be enough. Let's see how Sonder manages this.

I still haven't listened to Polaris and Sonder because Altered State is still on heavy rotation. Awesome album 

I really love Sonder.  I agree that it's short, but sometimes I then just listen to it twice. 

That's actually a great way of doing things 

[Samsara]

It's funny. Altered State came out, and I was blown away. I love the record, and it's still one of my favorite albums to have been released in the last 20 years. There was just something really special about what they were doing and Ashe's voice.

I went to go see them in San Francisco, and one of the guitarists had to fly home, so they piped in the second guitar. That had me questioning things. Then they start, and I noticed...no one other than Ashe sings. And there he goes, and proceeds to accompany his own lead vocal being piped in. he was literally singing along with himself, coming in on the parts he felt good about.

As a guy who truly values artists who perform their own material, I was crushed. Then Ashe got the boot, they brought back the old singer. It just wasn't the same. I still love Altered State, and bought Polaris and Sonder (they are fine, I've just moved on).

But Altered State is magic. I wanted it on vinyl, but since I missed the first pressing, I was hyped to get the edition they put out a couple years ago...until the price tag was like 70-something bucks U.S. Gimme a break.

Talented band, Altered State is one for the ages, but a real disappointment to me live, and overall, since Altered State.

[lonestar]

Crazy....guess I'm glad I missed that show. I saw them after Daniel came back in San Francisco a few years later, and they did the opening trio from Altered States. Easily a top 10 concert moment for me, they just fucking killed it, and Daniel sounded solid even though as I found out later he was battling a chest cold. Saw them a few years after that and he even sounded better.

And I love both albums Ashe subsequently did with Voices from the Fuselage, so for me it was a win win.

[Fritzinger]

Crazy....guess I'm glad I missed that show. I saw them after Daniel came back in San Francisco a few years later, and they did the opening trio from Altered States. Easily a top 10 concert moment for me, they just fucking killed it, and Daniel sounded solid even though as I found out later he was battling a chest cold. Saw them a few years after that and he even sounded better.

And I love both albums Ashe subsequently did with Voices from the Fuselage, so for me it was a win win.

Thanks for mentioning this! I think Dan Tompkins is great so I will check this band out.

I am still hooked and still just listening to the first two albums. Every time I discover something new. Recently, Resist hit me. What a moving track.

[goo-goo]

And I love both albums Ashe subsequently did with Voices from the Fuselage, so for me it was a win win.

Ah....the second one was a bit of a disappointment...but the first...great stuff!

[lonestar]

And I love both albums Ashe subsequently did with Voices from the Fuselage, so for me it was a win win.

Ah....the second one was a bit of a disappointment...but the first...great stuff!

I actually enjoyed the second, though I do agree it didn't touch the first. (actually the second and third, they did an EP before Ashe joined Tesseract)

[Fritzinger]

Okaayy so I finally checked out Polaris and Sonder.

I think Polaris is good but relies a little too much on slower tracks. The opener is awesome, but over the course of the album, I sometimes find myself thinking "duuudes cmon hit me with some of that heavy riffy shit like on Proxy or Nascent". Maybe I have to grow into it a bit more. TesseracT's melodies generally don't hit me at first or second listen, it took a few listens of the first two albums to really appreciate their beauty.

Sonder, on the other hand, is amazing in my opinion! It has easily the best production of the four (those drums  ) and I like its atmosphere a lot more than Polaris'. It's also a lot "slower" than One and Altered State and it doesn't have those aggressive riffs like on One, but the mixture just works better. I really love the double decker epic Beneath My Skin/Mirror Image. And I have to disagree with you, Buddyhunter, I think The Arrow makes for a great ending. Also, in my opinion, Sonder manages to make good use of its 36 minutes and I actually don't find it too short! When I first listened to it, I was on a 5h drive to Vienna and I just listened to Sonder 5 times on that drive  would never be possible with a 110 minutes Neal Morse album  I like that TesseracT albums are never over 55 minutes and that they really stuff and condense all their great ideas into those short running times. You might say, they lavishly throw around good ideas that other artists would use for entire songs. Still, I would love to hear some heavier sounds on their next output. I also love Daniel Tompkins' harsh vocals.

I held back with Portals until a few days ago, because I didn't want to hear any songs from Polaris and Sonder without having heard the full albums. I listened to it twice on another 5h drive. Let's just say, that finale from Of Matter in the Portals version is one of the greatest things I have heard in quite a while. That mix blew me away and I almost crashed my car into something at first listen  It's a pity that Jamie Postones couldn't be on this record as I really appreciate his drumming. But Mike Malyan (who I don't know) did a great job recreating those insanely complex polyrhythmic drum parts.

I can't wait to see this steamroller of a band live 

[lonestar]

They are ridiculously tight live.

[romdrums]

They are ridiculously tight live.

That's because more than half of their live sound was recorded beforehand.

[Fritzinger]

They are ridiculously tight live.

That's because more than half of their live sound was recorded beforehand.

I'm not sure if that's fair. I admit, I have never seem them live, but by now I have seen countless YouTube videos of them, also non-official videos that were not released by the band themselves. But here's my take on this statement:

First, come on, not half of it is prerecorded. Don't exaggerate to prove your point. I know they play with a backing track and I am not the biggest fan of that, but many other bands do the same. Dream Theater has been doing it the last ten years. The difference is, no one in TesseracT is pretending to sing the backing vocals, like JP. Haken do it too, although no with backing vocals (I think). Leprous do it with a lot of their orchestral stuff. Some of those bands' music is just too layered to be able to perform every composed note live. Do I need every little backing vocal line in live performances? No. But they seem to want to bring their studio sound to the stage as closely as possible and that's fine with me. However, one additional guy on keys, guitar and backing vocals (whenever any of those three is needed) would make this band perfect. But they are not Muse and bringing an additional musician on a tour costs a lot of money.

Second, them playing with the backing track is not the reason why they are so tight live. It actually doesn't have to do anything with that. Backing track or not, the musicians still have to play their instruments precisely. And there are plenty of passages where there is no backing track running and the band still perform very tightly.

[BlackInk]

Still, I would love to hear some heavier sounds on their next output. I also love Daniel Tompkins' harsh vocals.

The band has been streaming the writing and demoing process for the next album on twitch for the past few months. From the sound of it, it will be quite a diverse album, with some of the more heavier stuff returning as well. I have been missing that side of their music a bit too, so I've been happy to hear that they're bringing it back to at least some degree. Of course, they are just demos, and might not actually make the album, but it sounds like the heavy is back.

[Lethean]

Tesseract put out two new songs yesterday - not part of the upcoming album but some older material that hasn't been released.  It's on Kscope's bandcamp:

https://kscopemusic.bandcamp.com/album/regrowth

More harsh vocals than I'd like from them, but nice to have some new-ish music.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

I actually really like his harsh vocals.  Normally I don't care for hardcore-tinged vocal styles (either clean or harsh), but he's probably my favorite at it.  Speed Strid has that at times as well I suppose. 

[emtee]

Altered State could possibly be in my top 20 all time.

[Fritzinger]

To anyone who attended the DT show in Belfast last night: how much did TesseracT kick ass?

[Logain Ablar]

To anyone who attended the DT show in Belfast last night: how much did TesseracT kick ass?

I was there - I must confess that I had never heard of them until they were announced as support on this tour. I did a quick YouTube scan earlier on in the week, to get an idea of what to expect.

Anyway, I liked them, and I think they were pretty well received by the crowd. The crowd was only about half filled for their set, but I guess it's always hard to be the support act when most people are there to see the other guys. I thought a lot of they had a lot of cools rhythms, but they seemed to rely pretty heavily on backing tracks, to my ears at least. There were a lot of ambient sounds and effects that I don't think were produced by guitars, so if you were in the camp of not liking the background tracks that DT uses, I don't think you'd like these guys' use of them.

The singer was fantastic. Great range and power, and thankfully not a lot of the harsh growls, which is a big no-no for me.

One totally bizarre thing though - the stage lighting consisted of about 50 vertical fluorescent tubes, which all changed colours in sync with the music. Cool enough, but there was no overhead lighting whatsoever on the performers, so you couldn't see their faces. I have absolutely no idea what they look like, and would probably pass them by in the street! They could have lit them up at the end of their final song, even, for them to say their goodbyes.

I thought it was a strange choice for a support band that's presumably wanting to make an impression, get recognition and gain new fans etc. 

[Lethean]

Glad you enjoyed them.  Tesseract does indeed use a lot of backing tracks but that doesn't really bother me.  They always put on a great high energy show that I've always enjoyed.

I like Daniel Tompkins as a singer and frontman as well.

Re: their lighting - Katatonia and Leprous do the same thing.  Or at least Leprous did - not sure if they've changed that up. I think it can work really well and adds to the overall mood of the show, but if you're not close it is harder to see them.

[Logain Ablar]

Yeah, it would have been cool if you were close to the stage, and possibly on the same level, but I was sitting on the tiered seating at the back. So quite far away looking down at the stage, which was a big factor.

Still, I'm sure I'll check out some of their stuff now.

[BlackInk]

Yeah Tess is big on atmosphere. Both with the music (all that ambience you mentioned) and live presentation. I always love it, I think they create a fantastic mood for their shows. That I love their music helps too I guess, I really dig the more atmospheric style of "djent" that they have.

[lonestar]

Just checked their set, very Altered States heavy, which isn't a bad thing. Don't know why they didn't finish all on Of Matter though, Resist is such a great climax and only an extra 3 minutes. They did that last time I saw them as well

[BlackInk]

That's a shame that they're not doing Resist. Dan's version of that song is absolutely amazing. I wouldn't blame anyone for picking the lower harmonies when doing Ashe's vocal lines, but Dan hits the high harmonies on the "reeeesist"s like a damn legend.

[lonestar]

That's a shame that they're not doing Resist. Dan's version of that song is absolutely amazing. I wouldn't blame anyone for picking the lower harmonies when doing Ashe's vocal lines, but Dan hits the high harmonies on the "reeeesist"s like a damn legend.

Yup, the first time I saw them they did the whole thing...probably a top ten live music moment for me. Just frikkin amazing.

[lonestar]

Seems the first single from their upcoming album will drop on July 12th

[Nachtmerrie]

Seems the first single from their upcoming album will drop on July 12th

Can´t wait. It´s been too long since those 30-something minutes in 2019. Really liked Sonder but it's way too short.

[BlackInk]

Very excited about this.

Feels like this has been an unusually drawn out album cycle. They finished recording the album last spring, finished mixing and mastering before 2022 was over, so I'm surprised it's taken them this long to get promotion started. I must admit I was getting a little impatient, which I have no right to be, but still.

Also, the new album is confirmed to be over an hour, so no 30-min like last time.

[lonestar]

And from the social media posts, it seems to have a concept album vibe.. At least that's what I'm hoping for lol

[BlackInk]

And from the social media posts, it seems to have a concept album vibe.. At least that's what I'm hoping for lol

Yeah it's a full on concept album with a story and characters and all.

[lonestar]

And from the social media posts, it seems to have a concept album vibe.. At least that's what I'm hoping for lol

Yeah it's a full on concept album with a story and characters and all.

Which hopefully will translate into an amazing live show...

[Fritzinger]

Everyone calm down

My first album release cycle since I became a fan! Can't wait for this album!

[BlackInk]

And from the social media posts, it seems to have a concept album vibe.. At least that's what I'm hoping for lol

Yeah it's a full on concept album with a story and characters and all.

Which hopefully will translate into an amazing live show...

Amos said that they had really specific ideas for the artwork of this album, which would also tie in to the live shows following release. Even had a small crowd funding campaign for it. So yeah hoping that'll be sweet.

[lonestar]

New track is absolutely amazing.

[BlackInk]

I heard this song maybe a year ago when they were demoing the album, and already then I thought it had potential to be the best Tesseract song yet. Hearing it with full production only cemented that for me. Yeah this song is so freakin' good.