In just over a month, Turning Tricks entertainment are bringing out the godfathers of prog, TesseracT for their very first South African Tour!
In honour of this amazing opportunity, we will be dedicating every Tuesday to promoting Tesseract’s music, in order to show everyone why they should be buying tickets!
This will include showcasing their music, album reviews for all of their releases as well as an interview with the band themselves.
So keep an eye out!
ARTIST: TesseracT
ALBUM NAME: Altered State
RELEASE DATE: 2013
COUNTRY: England
GENRE: Progressive metal
MEMBERS:
Alec “Acle” Kahney – lead guitar
Jay Postones – drums, percussion
James ‘Metal’ Monteith – rhythm guitar
Amos Williams – bass, growls, backing vocals
Ashe O’Hara – lead vocals
If Tesseract’s debut album ‘One’ put this UK-based progressive-metal band on the map, ‘Altered State’ broke them through the earthly plane and out into the metaphysical. This album is truly a sonic experience the likes of which I had not heard in a very long time. With original vocalist Dan Tompkins and replacement Elliot Coleman now both out of the picture, the limitless voice of Ashe O’Hara was called upon to help Tesseract lose some of the aggression they had before (read: no more screams) but retain that ethereal majesty that form the majority of the band’s core sound – something he managed to achieve with magnificence and grace. How do I even begin to describe this album? I would liken it to the most delicious slab of chocolate ever created that had four individual sections – meaning that each piece is a part of the whole goodness. That analogy would pertain to the four parts of this album: Of Matter, Of Mind, Of Reality and Of Energy, and in each of those pieces are delicious morsel of different flavours – perhaps peppermint or caramel, or even almond and salt, whatever your taste buds desire the music translates into bouts of yumminess in your soul.
Ultimately, ‘Altered State’ is one slab of chocolate, but each piece and morsel combine creatively to be the sum of the whole. Truly a genius album that has many standout tracks which makes it difficult to really single out a favourite. Hell, even Machine Head’s Rob Flynn had this in his top 10 of 2013/14. As good as One and Perception are, this is the essential Tesseract album to have in your collection.
Reviewed by: Kevin Rule (more from Kev)
Date: 21 March 2017
Follow TesseracT on:
