SONDER

On Sonder, Tesseract have, sadly, demonstrated that they are a mere one-trick pony. While other progenitors of the djent movement have at least attempted to evolve their sound, Tesseract have decided to stick to their guns by packaging together record that is best described as a soppy distilling of previous efforts.

I admit that, taken in isolation, I might feel differently about this record. After all, all the elements that fans love about Tesseract are here: trippy riffs, beautiful ambience, big choruses, funky bass verses, etc. But when compared to the previous three records, there is simply nothing here that stands up favorably by comparison.

I imagine Tesseract fan boys who don't expect their progressive music to progress will be satisfied with this record. For those fans hoping Tesseract would use their truly impressive abilities and musical foundations to progress music further, this album will bore you to death.

Before the masterful 'War of Being', English band TesseracT did 'Sonder', a 2018 studio album by the prog metal innovators that is deeply moving, incredibly technical and impressively subtle in its execution. To date their shorter work, this record kind of works as a transitional release between two slightly different phases of theirs - their boastful progressive aggression, as depicted by the band's latest offering, and their more melancholic, experimental and occasionally atmospheric past works, meaning that 'Sonder' encapsulates qualities from both of these "realities" of the band, making it incredibly lavish, diverse, hard-hitting and joyful to experience with its thirty-six minutes' worth of music.

The songs appearing on the album are rather straightforward yet sufficiently complex and engaging, exploring laboriously the techniques and dynamics of djent, which is a sub-genre the band has been associated with since their early days. The music can get rather intense and emotive, with vocalist Daniel Tompkins delivering one of his most expansive and illustrious performances, supported by the brilliantly dense web of guitar, bass and drum patterns, acute and punctual, subtle and well-calculated, there is an aspect of perfection to the music of TesseracT, and this album does a perfect job in exemplifying just how immersive this style of prog metal can be once entwined into the webs of masterful songwriting. Its shorter length allows 'Sonder' to feel really cohesive, focused and collaborative, as every single element of the various songs fits the overall idea and the grandiose feel of suspense that is creeping around the very fabric of the musical landscapes here, often in the form of fascinating ambient textures. The band alternates between heavy passages, majestic technicality and melodic, almost electronic washes of sound, which are elevated by the overall accessibility of this album, through excellent tracks like 'King', 'Juno', 'Mirror Image' and 'Smile', just perfect examples of the group's collective strengths. Entries like 'Orbital' and 'The Arrow' have an interesting, spacey and almost complementary role to the rest of the heavier pieces, giving the album sufficient depth and utility. Excruciatingly excellent work of art from a talented young band!