Tesseract - Altered State (2013)
Of Matter
| Proxy
|| Retrospect
||| Resist
Of Mind
| Nocturne
|| Exile
Of Reality
| Eclipse
|| Palingenesis
||| Calabi-Yau
Of Energy
| Singularity
|| Embers
So, I picked up this album because of two things, one: it was released this year and I have been trying to both get into new bands and listen to the new material / catch up with music this year, and two: it was released by a band that I had never heard of, but they were labeled as progressive metal, so I was instantly interested.
This album wasn't something I was super excited to listen to right away, so it's been a few weeks since I got it. I listened to the full thing yesterday, and I was really hoping I had listened to it right away. It's a fantastic prog album, and everything about it oozes with jazzy proggy influence. The vocalist also does a great job in keeping the line between vocalist and musicianship very small. It basically all goes together very well and nothing really seems to out of place.
I was thought it was curious as to why the album is split up into 4 separate categories, but than I noticed as I was listening, the sections are very different from each other, they range from very fast paced proggy goodness, to slow melodic acoustic-esque musicianship. There's also a lot to be said about how well the album flows as a whole, so i'll go ahead and hit on that next.
I was sort of expecting to hear just a normal prog album that had a lot of thought musically into it, but I wasn't expecting to feel as though I was in a musical journey whilst listening. I ended up really getting into the music, and at some points, I was sad to know that the album was going to end soon, because some of the songs are short, but they are not in anyway filler, which I think this album does a fantastic job at. No filler. Just straight to the point, progressive rock.
Overall, I am really satisfied with this band and this album and I wish them oodles of success in their future endeavors. I don't know much about the band so I hope I didn't just butcher this review. I will however be getting a hold of their other records, even though they only have one other studio release, titled "One", so I guess it won't be all that hard to get caught up on their music. They also started in 2007, which was also shocking since it seems like they've been around for quite some time. I really do hope they keep up the good work because if they continue to shine as they did in this album, I see a lot of great material coming from them in the future.