The Tesseract Megathread: Sonder Released

[BlackMastodon]

One weird thing is that after about 20 full album listens I can't remember ANY passages from songs other than the first 2 ones. Something about the first two ones just stuck to the head. And for the rest... the better because the surprise effect lasts long

Not necessarily the first 2 songs, but the same kind of thing happened to me after listening to the album where only a couple tracks were memorable and the rest just didn't stick. Unfortunately it has an opposite effect on me. There's no surprise on further listens because it doesn't interest me enough to listen to it more. Similar thing happened after I listened to Altered State, nothing really jived with me.

And there's nothing wrong with that. I'm glad so many people can keep enjoying there music but for me they just haven't lived up to the expectation that was set for me with One. I hate sounding like some metal purist who hates everything new and only likes the first album of a band that tried to experiment and evolve their sound, but that's the reality of it. Not that I hate the last 2 albums that they put out, it's not like I thought they were garbage or anything, I just didn't find it interesting.

I guess the bottom line is you can't please everyone.

 

[Tr3vor]

The thing I find sad with music listeners is how album x is always compared to bands earlier albums. It should be seen as a new thing - uncomparable in some sense. It's art and it tries different ways to approach things, this needs to be respected and it is not a sequel nor a product. I see this with dan the most - he toned down the heavy singing / screams and approached a more easier for live style, it simply all felt more real with a live approach - I dig this.

One weird thing is that after about 20 full album listens I can't remember ANY passages from songs other than the first 2 ones. Something about the first two ones just stuck to the head. And for the rest... the better because the surprise effect lasts long

Yeah, it kind of is a product. Its coped and put on sale for people to buy.

I guess you're right when a new album comes out in a different style, but is absolutely great, I guess it shouldn't be hated on just because its different. But if you don't like the new album based on the music itself, I don't think its a sad or bad thing if someone prefers a previous album over the new one.

 

[DeKay]

Yeah, it kind of is a product. Its coped and put on sale for people to buy.

I guess you're right when a new album comes out in a different style, but is absolutely great, I guess it shouldn't be hated on just because its different. But if you don't like the new album based on the music itself, I don't think its a sad or bad thing if someone prefers a previous album over the new one.

The sight just sticks to me that people compare music like games, there can't be album/artist x because y is better so its completely dismissed often. Maybe I went overboard Thanks for the replies, stuff like this is really interesting to talk about.

 

[Veldar]

After listening to the new record a lot I don't think most of the songs are memorable, maybe like 4 or 5 are but they're not going to stick in my head like Altered State did.

On the Metalsucks podcast with Dan he talked about the possibility of the band recording at a studio for the next album, not just Acle writing/performing all the music and getting vocals added at the end.

I mean Jay, Amos and Metal clearly are capable musicians it's a shame they don't have input into Tesseract's sound.

My dream would be the next album to have the connecting ideas like Altered State keep the music evolving & include all the guys in the band working and creating ideas.

 

[wankerness]

I bought this cause I couldn't resist a 5.1 mix. Anyway, I like the music a LOT more than Altered State, where that album was just a drain to listen to and it all kind of was a big morass of gloom, this one's consistently entertaining and varied and I liked most of it, besides maybe that one doofy rap section that everyone commented on. The vocals might not be as "good" in a technical sense, but I like the way they're used a lot more than the constant wall of overdubs of Maynard-y honk that dominated all of the guitars on the last album. The best thing about this album is probably the bass playing, I like that he's consistently throwing slap in there, it's much more entertaining than the usual lock-in-with-the-guitars or fingerstyle wank that I hear in djent or prog metal albums.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Also, I never realized Amos had such a smooth voice.

 

[Veldar]

^ Anyone else find it weird Amos only had one bass? I thought'd he'd have at least 2.

 

[A-Branger]

^ Anyone else find it weird Amos only had one bass? I thought'd he'd have at least 2.

he got two, if you notice when they interview the first guitar player, theres two basses in the case behind

 

[crazyprofessor]

Just listening to it for the first time.

 

[ArtDecade]

Thanks for the update. Allow me to direct you to: http://sevenstring.org/threads/what-are-you-listening-to.88/

 

[Albake21]

I'm actually super happy with it! Just listening through it today, I'm really impressed and super happy Dan brought back some screams. That's all I wanted with this album, perfect amount of it too. My only dislike are the guitar tones, they are very distorted and almost synth like.

 

[Ordacleaphobia]

Thanks for the update. Allow me to direct you to: http://sevenstring.org/threads/what-are-you-listening-to.88/

As someone who was passively kind of looking forward to this album but not enough to memorize the release date, I appreciate this thread.

 

[toolsound]

I think I appreciate the atmosphere that Tesseract puts out there these days, but the music doesn't really move me like it used to.

On a separate note, is this album really just 7 tracks?

 

[philkilla]

On a separate note, is this album really just 7 tracks?

It feels like an EP more than anything, albeit a really good EP.

 

[crazyprofessor]

I hate these megathreads.

 

[drmosh]

REally like the new album, it seems like too much filler unless you listen to it in one go.

HOWEVER, as much as i liked the songwriting, a song from altered state came on soon after by chance and I was much more head bobby

I hate these megathreads.

hate is a strong word

 

[A-Branger]

I think the new album is awesome. Nice atmospheric little album like they have been doing for a while. But Im not gonna lie and say I miss the "dj0nt" part of it. Love this kind of music, but I also love their more agresive tracks from the early albums.

Still, lvoe the album

 

[coreysMonster]

I don't get this album. It's like it's at some weird half-way point between pure ambient and their usual style, but neither takes the lead so it just kinda meanders most of the time. Some ambient sections were cool, there were one or two good groove moments, but other than that this album's a bit of a mess for me.

The only song that I remember well and fondly is the last one, and it's 2.5 minutes long.

 

[Sermo Lupi]

Still putting this album through its paces, so I don't want to say too much about it yet. However, I really liked the singles they released ahead of it--especially 'King'--so I was anticipating this release for at least a month or two.

I wanted to ask you guys about what you make of their re-working of the song 'Smile'. The wikipedia page for Sonder confirms they intended to change and expand the song for the album release, while the band's wikipedia page seems to have a bit more information:

Writing for Sonder was done throughout 2017. The band released the promo single "Smile" on 23 June 2017. Several band members, including Acle Kahney and Amos Williams, have acknowledged that the single is not yet complete, and will be further refined before being released on Sonder. According to Amos on Kscope's website, "We have a solid idea of where we would like to take this track on the next album as it is in no way finished."[20]

I could have sworn I read somewhere that the band made those comments in reaction to fans criticising the production quality of the single, but I can't seem to find any record of that. All the same, the version of the song that's on the album differs drastically from the single version.

What do you guys think about that? Maybe I just listened to the single too much and became too familiar with it, but to my ears the single/demo version is a much better song. It has better vocal melodies, has a more structured composition, and is maybe a little more 'radio friendly' as a result. The parts they expanded seem to meander, and I'm not sure how I feel about the screams they added to the track. I also think the production sounds more polished on the album version but somehow worse. All in all I think the album version is worse for the changes and I wish that they would have left the song as it was before, albeit with the usual mastering tweaks.

What do you guys think?

 

[isispelican]

Yep, I like the single much better, especially in the verse where the drums get into the background, it's more cinematic