Tesseract – Altered State

Having heard a lot of buzz & chatter on various music websites and guitar magazines, I was eager to get a listen to latest release from this 5-piece and find out what all the fuss is about. Although Tesseract have been around with various personnel since 2003 this is only their second full length studio release, with the previous album receiving critical acclaim from across the industry it might have proved difficult to better both in terms of ambition and appeal.

Opening with some haunting vocals from relatively new vocalist Ashe O’Hara, ‘Of Matter’, is the first of the four areas this opus will take you through before its conclusion. It is full of mood and melody, while featuring a fair amount of technical guitar and rhythm changes it’s not until the second area that a more heavy and frantic sonic experience can be heard in the 2 songs in the ‘Of Mind’ section, each song building on the energy of the previous one it quickly moves in the direction of the ‘Of Reality’ tracks which seem slightly darker to begin with but the third track in the section reverts back to a more frantic rhythm with some jazz style saxophone thrown in as if to emphasise that this is not music easily defined.

On the closing part of the album are the two tracks in the ‘Of Energy’ section. Featuring possibly my favorite track on the album ‘Of Energy – Singularity’ it seems to combine all the good elements from all that has gone before in it’s 8+ minutes and also seems to pay homage to their peers and possibly one band in particular who seem to have had a lasting influence on them. It is definitely not a bad thing, on all the tracks they have their own unique style stamped on everything from the vocals & guitar style to the tempo and mood changes.

This is a collection of songs definitely best listened to as a complete work as opposed to individual tracks. It is melodic, hugely ambitious, progressive and in many ways sets the bar for all that follow. Quite how they will push that bar that little bit further on any future releases will be interesting to hear, but it is something I will anticipate with gladness.

Rating:  8/10

Track Listing: 

1. Of Matter – Proxy
2. Of Matter – Retrospect
3. Of Matter – Resist
4. Of Mind – Nocturne
5. Of Mind – Exile
6. Of Reality – Eclipse
7. Of Reality – Palingenesis
8. Of Reality – Calabi-Yau
9. Of Energy – Singularity
10. Of Energy – Embers

Band Lineup:

Ashe O’Hara – Vocals

Jamie Postones – Drums

Amos Williams– Bass

Alce Kahney – Guitars

James Monteith – Guitars

Band Links:

Website: www.tesseractband.co.uk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/tesseractband

Myspace: www.myspace.com/tesseractband

Twitter: www.twitter.com/tesseractband

YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/tesseractproject