The Tesseract Megathread: Sonder Released

[Emperor Guillotine]

I'm on the fence here.

I've been jamming Altered State in its entirety the past few weeks; and I still have to say that I love it. As for One, I believe that it was a great starting point, and I really dig maybe three songs on it. But that's just it....."maybe three songs". Altered State is something that I can sit through and listen to front-to-back no problem and enjoy everything each time.

I guess that I just prefer the writing on Altered State. It sounds stronger, more thought out to a meticulous point, and far more mature and progressed compared to the writing on One.

As for the vocalist debate, I am indifferent. I really liked Ashe's harmonies and vocal arrangements; however, I do see what wankerness said about it sounding like the same overdub-drenched patterns and vocal style over and over again throughout Atered State. As for Dan, I really liked his variety in style between his range for clean singing and then his harsh vocals (Ashe never did harsh vocals), and I particularly liked how his voice was mixed to be more "ethereal" (like you would an instrument) for some moments in One and not as prominent at times. This goes without saying that his vocal arrangements and patterns were so stereotypical and predictable and he bored the sh*t out of me in One.

I listened to both albums in their entirety back-to-back today while at work. Both were great, but Altered State still has my preference, and it was a bit of a struggle to make it through One (especially when I hit the 9-minute version of "Eden").

Anyway, here is a review of Polaris by one of the reviewers at Heavy Blog Is Heavy.
TesseracT – Polaris | Heavy Blog Is Heavy

I do agree in saying that what I've heard thus far just seems to be a rehash that I've heard before and nothing new. Nothing has changed. No progress.

 

[Tr3vor]

Even though nothing is really changing in the new album, I was thinking it would be nice if it is something that merges the styles of the past two albums into one. That was something that kinda annoyed me with the past two albums, it might have been the mixing or something, but One sometimes feels too harsh, and Altered State sometimes feels so soft that its smothering. If this one sits right in the middle of that, I think that would be great.

I'd think its alright if a band sticks with its sound to a point, but "reusing" parts of "Of Energy" in a couple new songs sounds kinda odd to me, guess we'll have to see how that works.

If they changed it up too much, I think they'd lose the sound that made them what they are (I guess), sorta like the new Periphery stuff. I like it a lot, but I can see why fans were disappointed with it.

I'm going to stop rambling about nonsene now and listen to Eclipse, best song ever.

 

[isispelican]

love this clip

 

[Emperor Guillotine]

I'm going to stop rambling about nonsene now and listen to Eclipse, best song ever.

Awh man, I've singled this song out of Altered State and listened to it by itself quite a bit lately. Those catchy parts are SOOO good! I'm thinking that I'll do a guitar cover of it for YouTube.

 

[mdeeRocks]

I like this a lot. Never listened to this band before reading this thread - Altered State is imo great album, it has really good balance of progressive/modern metal while it's not tiring and does not sound like someone trying to imitate dubstep using extended range guitar. Good vocals too.
p.s. extra bonus for band name.

haha, oh ...... I thought it was a girl singing.. what a shame. Still good vocals though.

 

[Matyrker]

I'm on the fence here.

I've been jamming Altered State in its entirety the past few weeks; and I still have to say that I love it. As for One, I believe that it was a great starting point, and I really dig maybe three songs on it. But that's just it....."maybe three songs". Altered State is something that I can sit through and listen to front-to-back no problem and enjoy everything each time.

I guess that I just prefer the writing on Altered State. It sounds stronger, more thought out to a meticulous point, and far more mature and progressed compared to the writing on One.

As for the vocalist debate, I am indifferent. I really liked Ashe's harmonies and vocal arrangements; however, I do see what wankerness said about it sounding like the same overdub-drenched patterns and vocal style over and over again throughout Atered State. As for Dan, I really liked his variety in style between his range for clean singing and then his harsh vocals (Ashe never did harsh vocals), and I particularly liked how his voice was mixed to be more "ethereal" (like you would an instrument) for some moments in One and not as prominent at times. This goes without saying that his vocal arrangements and patterns were so stereotypical and predictable and he bored the sh*t out of me in One.

I listened to both albums in their entirety back-to-back today while at work. Both were great, but Altered State still has my preference, and it was a bit of a struggle to make it through One (especially when I hit the 9-minute version of "Eden").

Anyway, here is a review of Polaris by one of the reviewers at Heavy Blog Is Heavy.
TesseracT – Polaris | Heavy Blog Is Heavy

I do agree in saying that what I've heard thus far just seems to be a rehash that I've heard before and nothing new. Nothing has changed. No progress.

I feel like nothing changing is a good thing though. People complain so much about bands changing their music. At least, as it seems, this album means that Tesseract IS STILL Tesseract. That's whats really important.

Also, the review says there is a bass line that is from Altered State. Has he ever heard of motifs? I guess he never listened to the Amanuensis.

 

[Tr3vor]

I feel like nothing changing is a good thing though. People complain so much about bands changing their music. At least, as it seems, this album means that Tesseract IS STILL Tesseract. That's whats really important.

Also, the review says there is a bass line that is from Altered State. Has he ever heard of motifs? I guess he never listened to the Amanuensis.

Never heard of Amanuensis, but Plini does that a lot (a bit too much sometimes imo... but whatever). Yeah, might not be a bad thing.

 

[Matyrker]

Never heard of Amanuensis, but Plini does that a lot (a bit too much sometimes imo... but whatever). Yeah, might not be a bad thing.

Its Monuments' second album. Motif city.

 

[DLG]

Not changing styles drastically is fine as long as there is some kind of progression.

Like Maiden through Seventh Son, Metallica through And Justice, Meshuggah through Catch 33 etc.

Sounds like Tesseract is more in AC/DC mode though.

 

[bozothedeathmachine]

I got into Tesseract just after One was released, so I've seen the band evolve from there. And for the record, I really like all 3 releases.

With regard to the singers: I love Altered States, and see it as being more mature than One in both writing and production terms. Having seen both Ashe and Dan (with both Tesseract and Shyharbor) live, I have to give it Dan. Ashe struggled with a lot of the high notes. Granted, he could have had a off-night, but it does hint at studio magic. It'll be interesting to see what Dan does in the new one. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there are no screams. I remember when Ashe (or maybe Elliot) joined, Acle stated in an interview that they were done with screams. And live Dan didn't most of the screams anyway, Amos did them. I'm totally fine with this, as screamy vocals have never been my bag.

Regarding not changing sound, they're still a fairly new/young band. They have a unique, identifiable sound that's their hallmark so I'm sure it won't stray much from that. Plus the rotating singers can't help. Plenty of other bands have exhibited this behavior and really only change when the lineup stabilizes (Alpha/Omega being prime examples). If they keep this lineup I would think future albums would start to change. To paraphrase The Lorax: Prog is prog, and prog must prog(ress).

Now onto a semi-but-not-entirely-derail. Anyone who hasn't listened to Monuments Amanuensis, do it now. As stated, it's a great example of re-using motifs. Almost all of the songs are thematically linked, so it works really well and isn't abused (to my tastes). Monuments is also a great example of the lineup making the band. Their previous non-major releases had a different singer and don't come anywhere near as awesome as the Amanuensis, and this is only their first major release. I am soooooooooo stoked to see what they do next. And to tie this all back to Tesseract, the vocalist for Monuments, Chris Barretto, played the sax parts in Altered States. And, former Skyharbor drummer, Anup, has just joined Monuments. There's a lot of prog in-breeding lately. And we all benefit from it.

 

[Tr3vor]

I guess they have a new music video from their new album, Survival.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO_Cp-Qlg5E

I don't know why, but the first bit of vocals gave me a Linkin Park vibe, but that might just be me. I like the instrumentals though.

 

[Kurkkuviipale]

The new single is everything I ever wanted.

 

[wannabguitarist]

I don't know why, but the first bit of vocals gave me a Linkin Park vibe, but that might just be me. I like the instrumentals though.

I've gotten that a few times from Dan, especially on Concealing Fate Part II

 

[JEngelking]

I guess they have a new music video from their new album, Survival.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO_Cp-Qlg5E

I don't know why, but the first bit of vocals gave me a Linkin Park vibe, but that might just be me. I like the instrumentals though.

I'm loving this. I was already excited Dan was back in the band (though I did really enjoy Altered State and Ashe as a singer) but this just got me to a whole new level of hyped. I like Messenger a lot too, but I think Survival is my favorite so far.

Edit: I'm also listening on my monitors, and the mix sounds huge.

 

[Tr3vor]

After listening to both songs a couple times, I think I like Messenger better. Probably because the funky single coil type sound going on.

Hey, there's like 15 more days till its out, sweet.

 

[Joose]

I like "Survival" a lot more now that I've listened to it without the video. I just didn't like that video at all; the dude hiding from nothing was really bugging me for some reason. Sometimes you need CGI, lol.

I think "Messengers" is the better song though; I listen to it all of the time.

 

[SeditiousDissent]

I think Survival is the epitome of the Tesseract sound. It has those atmospheric moments, yet it still hits hard. Vocally, the only thought I had while listening to it was "holy ....." I had forgotten how much of a badass Dan was, because Altered State was incomprehensibly well done. Ashe was pretty much on point, but this IS Tesseract. I'm totally looking forward to the rest of the album.

 

[Matyrker]

Loved the new tune. I just love this band so much.

 

[bhakan]

Album Stream!

 

[noobstix]

Permission slip signed. I'm ready for this feels trip.