TesseracT – One

site | label | buy

Hailing from the UK, prog-metal band TesseracT have already garnered a hefty reputation from their debut self-released EP Concealing Fate. Alongside American band Periphery and a host of others, TesseracT have found themselves tagged as part of the ‘Djent’ metal scene. What this effectively amounts to is that TesseracT’s sound can be described as heavy on unusual rhythms, strange time-signatures and a very distinct, chuggy guitar sound. This all sounds rather like Meshuggah in description, but other than having certain similarities in methodology, TesseracT are surprisingly far from the legendary Swedish prog-metallers. Rather, TesseracT’s music has a more atmospheric feel to it, despite an otherwise heavy sound. TesseracT are rich in cold guitar texture, complimented by emotive singing and a noticeable groove. The band’s sound is sonically beautiful and technically superb, and purely from the perspective of analysing the band’s unique sound, One is a terrific album. Where the album falls somewhat flat though is when the production is ignored and the album is assessed by the songs themselves. Each song floats from start to finish without really pulling on the emotions that make for a really enjoyable record – progressive, metal or otherwise. Despite the great use of multiple rhythms, there’s very little change in tempo, consistently sticking to a slow and similar pace for the album’s length. Likewise, whilst the band have a great sound, it’s not a sound the band ever dare to deviate from – a good thing for a thrash or death metal band, but for a progressive band it feels somewhat safe and unexciting. As a result, the songs tend to blur into one another, with little feeling of change despite the continued change of timings and rhythms. Ultimately One sounds like a band that love their sound, but unfortunately haven’t made an album that really reaches out and does something beyond that – it might be this trait that has led to TesseracT and others be painted with the Djent brush, instead of being treated as simply progressive metal. In the end, this is an album that makes for excellent background listening, but ultimately feels too hollow and not daring enough to be considered a truly great progressive album.

Written by James Donovan
More: 2011, Albums, Progressive, Quick.Play Reviews, TesseracT