Conor Fynes 'Concealing Fate' - TesseracT (9/10)

To be quite honest, there are few bands that leave an impression on me, without me first having listened to a full-length bout from them. Having been introduced in earnest to UK metal act TesseracT's music when they opened for Devin Townsend in concert, I was blown away by their immensely tight and chaotic live performance. Naturally, I would pursue the band's work further into their studio material. Perhaps the reason I am loving this new EP 'Concealing Fate' so much is that I associate it with the incredible concert experience I got that night, but regardless, TesseracT's first official effort has blown me away, resulting in one of the strongest extended plays I have ever heard.

Being part of the recent 'djent' metal movement (essentially bands that try to sound like math metal pioneers Meshuggah), TesseracT takes the travelled approach of chaotic, polyrhythmic progressive metal and adds in something that seems to have been long lost on many other releases in the style; a sense of real melody. With this first professional EP, the band packs in hefty doses of atmosphere, technicality (both in performance and composition), heaviness, and beauty, all in appropriate balance and measure. The entire work flows together seamlessly; 'Concealing Fate' is essentially a twenty seven minute long epic, separated into six pieces for the sake of disc navigation. While it might not have the defined sections as a classic epic suite like Genesis' 'Supper's Ready' or 'A Change Of Seasons' from Dream Theater, the piece works wonderfully well as a composition, and the reoccurance of musical motifs and themes gives the journey a binding cohesion.

'Concealing Fate' opens with some beautifully atmospheric and haunting guitar strings that ring throughout the mix. The concept is repeated and developed upon until the crushing metal element is introduced overtop, in a different time signature altogether. This mixture of different times and sounds give a very chaotic, yet brilliant aspect to the music. Overtop the mathematically sound madness are the soaring vocals of singer Dan Tompkins, which while incorperating screams into the mix from time to time, are for the most part, very melodic and powerful. This contrast between the heaviness and beauty of the vocal work is incredibly difficult to do well, but very effective when accomplished, and TesseracT seems to have no problem finding a proper balance.

While there isn't a highlight necessarily in terms of tracks, the first two tracks do seem to work as individual compositions as well as part of the greater whole, while the latter portion of the EP is suited towards only being considered part of the epic. One thing that TesseracT does really well here is create a dense wall of sound behind the main instruments, something that makes me see why they were chosen to play with Devin Townsend. While the music shines throughout, there are indeed parts that might have benefitted had they had a little more variety of sounds to them, instead of a mere guitar barrage. As the powerful introduction suggests, TesseracT works best when they counterpoint heaviness and lightness as one.

While I would rarely say this for an EP, this has indeed been one of the best things to be released this year. It has everything that I would want in a metal release; complexity, intelligence, tight execution, beauty, and an adequate sense of heaviness. While the music here isn't that diverse, TesseracT give a consistently engaging experience. I cannot wait for their first full-length.

bartosso I admit it, I hate mixing prog with mainstream, especially if it concerns djent. As a great fan of this... well I shouldn't call it genre so let it be style. So, as a great fan of this style I constantly look for Meshuggah followers to find some gems and indulge in that weird atmosphere, discordant riffs and brain boiling drum beats. This time I got not my brain but fingers burnt. The gem turned out to be just an ordinary stone.

Okay, maybe it was a little bit too harsh. The main problem with this release is that it has some really bad, annoying even, qualities and some really good ones too. I will start with good ones if you don't mind. First of all this is perfectly executed and written material, with very nice, thick and clean production, pleasing the ear with full range of frequencies. Secondly, djent parts of the record are professionally composed and attract attention, even if most of them are just cribbed from Meshuggah. Thirdly, some (but very few) melodic parts are good, haunting even, and made me, for these few times, enjoy the record.

Now the better part - bloody flaws. What I hate most about TesseracT? [drum roll] Vocal parts! They are the biggest curse of this EP. The singer has quite powerful, clean voice and wide vocal range, but the way he uses it brings to mind (unpleasant) associations with Linkin Park and so-called melodic metal core. That kind of singing leads directly to tearful/gushing melodies which I... well, can't stand actually. It's not only the singer to be blamed of course. Other musicians rarely (but still too often) follow him in this run of the mill. In the end we've got a record where heavy djent themes alternate, quite smoothly, with melodic passages of "pure emotion", making up consistent creation of accessible prog metal.

All in all, it is not a bad work. I don't really like it but there's no denying that the guys are talented and managed to combine discordant sounds of djent with purely melodic modern metal. It's admirable.

Andyman1125 I found it hard not to give this 5 stars after listening to the first second.

After delaying the debut studio album release again, (and again, and again, and again), TESSERACT decided (reluctantly) to please the fans by releasing their epic 27-minute Concealing Fate (of which I had heard bits and pieces before, to my great pleasure) as an EP.

PART I opens up somewhat slowly, with that delayed clean riff that beautifully permeates the whole piece. It then breaks into a sweeping djent-y distortion riff, while proceeding to enter in Dan's great vocal capacity. The whole opening piece is, well, a great opener. It acts almost as an overture, introducing some of the riffs of the other songs.

PART II breaks into a similar clean riff. This is, in my opinion, the best of the six parts. Dan's vocals, the guitars, the bass, the drums, they all come together in a endeavor of near musical genius. The instrumental sections are magnificent, as is the rest of the track.

PART III is a bit more mellow, showing a bit of a slower tempo and less djent. A small slap bass solo is a nice change in pace for the song. Dan's vocals are again magnificent.

PART IV is, as the tile (Sadness) suggest, an even more melancholy, although there is a wee bit more djent in the short part.

PART V greatly reminds of PERIPHERY more than any of the other tracks did. It's a wonderful djenty piece running for about 1:30. It really shows the extreme metal influence in their music.

PART VI is a nice closer. It's reminiscent of PART I, it stars slowly and eventually breaks into a much heavier sound.

ALBUM OVERALL: The whole track is nice to listen to. Although the band is djent oriented, they aren't a stifling extreme tech death mashup of distorted guitars and screaming strangled vocals. Dan is a magnificent vocalists, easily one of the better of the trade. Really the only down point is that it was released by it own and not with the rest of the album! Other than that, there is a bit of redundancy in some tracks, with just djent-djent-djent-djent-djent-djent-djent-djent-djent over and over again. This isn't a bad thing, but it should be something used sparsely. The whole track is 27 minutes long, but when the riff is used 3 times a part, it can get a LITLLE bit old. Other than that, the track was magnificent. 4+ STARS.