Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for TesseracT - Altered State (2013)
Tesseract vocalist Daniel Tompkins temporarily left the band to join Indian/American band Skyharbor for one and a half albums. He was replaced by Elliot Coleman for the Perspective EP, which is mostly an acoustic EP that I won't review, and Ashe O'Hara for Altered State. The latter follows the trend of One's "Concealing Fate" by including multi-track epics. Anyone who enjoyed that nearly half-hour epic like I have was looking forward to this album. Is it the sh*t or just sh*t? Well...
I just knew this would be the perfect album for me! Altered State is the kind of album you really need to pay attention to. And if you can listen without any distractions or interruptions, you'll be able to appreciate this progressive glory and end the journey with great rewards.
"Of Matter" is the first epic, over 14 minutes long and consisting of three parts. The first part "Proxy" already opens up the album's dynamic diversity. Gentle chords leads to riff distortion, just like what you would expect from Tesseract. And clearly there's more maturity in their writing. By the time you get to the second part "Retrospect", it really does sound like it's meant to be a full suite, just like "Concealing Fate". And the guitar tone of that earlier epic shines greatly in the third part "Resist".
"Of Mind" is the second epic, over 14 minutes long and consisting of two parts. The music and lyrics in the first part "Nocturne" are in great form. Between the Buried and Me guitarist Paul Waggoner contributes his own guitar solo. Part 2 "Exiled" can be considered an epic within an epic! Some parts sound too ballad-ish but it's still all good.
"Of Reality" is the third epic, over 10 minutes long and consisting of three parts. Part 1 "Eclipse" has some cool bass and drums. Through the last third of that part, the filthy drumming adds to the serene ambience for beautiful heights. Part 2 "Palingenesis" is a nice track filled with polyrhythmic djent. A saxophone interlude comes on in the third part "Calabi-Yau", which is nice. It's performed by Chris Barretto, Periphery's ex-vocalist who was replaced by Spencer Sotelo while recording that band's debut.
"Of Energy" is the fourth epic, over 12 minutes long and consisting of two parts. The first part "Singularity" has some excessive djent groove, but I still enjoy it, and the perfect 5-star rating isn't affected. Part 2 "Embers" closes the album with the last bit of experimentation, including more of that saxophone at the very end.
With Altered State, Tesseract continues to make progressive music history this century the way bands like King Crimson have done in the last century. Melodies and different time signatures from dynamic epics like the ones in this masterpiece album. There's nothing to fear about blending different ideas together, especially when they succeed in displaying their creativity and innovation. Practically everything is flawless, and it shall be enjoyed all the way up to the next century!
Favorites: All 4 epics, but as for specific tracks, "Proxy", "Resist", "Nocturne", "Eclipse", "Embers"