TESSERACT – Polaris (2015)

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Since vocalist Daniel Tompkins left the band in 2011, TESSERACT have had a tough time finding a stable line-up. The UK outfit settled on frontman Ashe O’Hara just in time for their excellent second album Altered State (featured here on the blog), but have since shed him and welcomed Tompkins back into the fold for this new album to be released next September 18: “Polaris”.

Recognised as being one of the founding fathers of the ‘djent prog’ subgenre (an onomatopoeia for a high-gain, distorted, palm-muted heavy guitar sound) the band have melded their sound of odd time signatures, alternating clean / rocking vocals and anthemic choruses into a distinctive style all of their own.
But after listening “Polaris” I think the matured musicianship in exhibition breaks TesseracT free from the djent genre restriction chokehold and exposes the band for who they really are: a well-rounded progressive musical group incapable of being pinned down to a specific classification.

After the few opening bars, it’s immediately evident that they’ve focused this record on a far more refined and melodic approach than on previous outings. The six and a half minute album opener ‘Dystopia’ crashes on a wave of static and barely restrained guitar feedback and shows Tompkins to be in fine vocal form; all menacing and dark in the syncopated verses before opening up in the chorus, filling the bleak void with a soaring lyric amid a flurry of crisp drums and stabbing guitars.
It’s clear from the outset that they’ve opted for a less heavy approach to the guitars sonically whilst still retaining the sound they’ve made a trademark. It segues into ‘Hexes’ with a softer intro that’s all chiming guitars and slow building percussive darts and an almost Middle Eastern feel before the band lets rip and their harmonically complex guitar and vocal lines are displayed in full force.

‘Survival’ again shows off a far more melodic side of TesseracT whilst still being rooted in their own sound. It’s a distillation of everything you’ve come to expect from them and more, and the crystal clean production allows each nuance to shine through.
‘Tourniquet’ is a highlight here, a yearning, brooding piece built around a chord structure of delayed guitar and some pulsing snare cracks and slowly burns along until the dynamics shift into overdrive before Amos Williams bass lines herald in some furious riffing into the outro. Although TesseracT is no stranger to a continuous motion of music, the breath-of-fresh-air interludes are necessary and the Steven Wilson-like harmonic serenity present on this ‘Tourniquet’ quite perfectly plays that part.

‘Utopia’ begins with some great piano before breaking into a very prog-based groove that rocks along with some haunting synth chords floating in the background. There are some very smooth timing changes here too, and the band achieve an almost Faith No More-like feel to the piece.
‘Phoenix’ is a melancholic song that has undertows of crunching guitars over which they’ve layered a kaleidoscope of ringing chords and some intense, passionate sequences. ‘Messenger’ – the shortest piece here – is a chunky off-time cut based on a punching bass and drums combo with contrastingly distorted/clean lyrics. The band are truly masters of merging different rhythms that contradict each other, and yet work together so well.

‘Cages’ introduces some beautifully placed guitar work over a sea of reverb-soaked chords, then album closer ‘Seven Names’ sways on a tide of emotion that brings the entire work crashing to a dynamic close that’s bathed in sheets of never-ending chords and again some tastefully placed piano in the fade-out.

Excelling as a whole and beckoning for an entire listen back-to-front, ‘Polaris’ is best defined as a sum of TesseracT’s polished production smoothly colliding with an offensive onslaught of vocal and instrumentation virtuosity.
Far from straying too much from their earlier efforts, they’ve simply taken their compositions to the next level and created a body of work that’s textually rich and complex and yet has passages of space that enable the songs to breathe and grow with each repeated listen.

TesseracT have broken new ground with ‘Polaris’: it’s an album that is poetic and passionate, angst-ridden and searching, with as dynamic a selection of songs as you’ll find anywhere in these times. A dramatic, mature and well rounded third album from a band who’ve shown fans and critics alike that they still have a deep well of creativity from which to draw.
Very Recommended.

01 – Dystopia
02 – Hexes
03 – Survival
04 – Tourniquet
05 – Utopia
06 – Phoenix
07 – Messenger
08 – Cages
09 – Seven Names

Daniel Tompkins – Vocals
Acle Kahney – Guitar
James Monteith – Guitar
Amos Williams – Bass
Jay Postones – Drums

Pre-Order:
www.amazon.co.uk/Polaris-Tesseract/dp/B011QB7B1C
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