All that it takes is a stick of dynamite to go off at any second and erupt in this fiery explosion. You feel the heat, the fires crackling, and the smell that is coming towards you. And that’s why TesseracT have kept those fires burning 20 years on and unleashing their fifth studio album War of Being.
It had been five years since they put out a new album after their 2018 release Sonder on the Kscope label. Mind you, I’m very new to TesseracT’s music. So, this is a first.
Listening to TesseracT’s new album is like putting on some new shoes you bought at Academy, and they fit perfectly well to get you on your feet. Acle, Jay, Monteith, Williams, and Tompkins are very much like a band of brothers, bringing out a powerful delivery, all revved up and ready to go. Most of the time it reminded me a bit of Haken’s music that comes to mind.
Take for example ‘Legion’. It bears a powerful swelter for the temperature to rise up with drums, guitars, and high-ranging vocals. Followed by snarling growls to reveal this insane madman inside the loony bin, whose about to rule the asylum with an iron fist.
The 11-minute title track is where all bets are off. From the sliding, alarming effect that begins the song, it becomes a ticking time-bomb in which hell has arrived in the outside world.
There are lyrical boundaries of how this war became this one big giant lie in characterisations throughout the song, knowing that the little ray of light is still hanging in the balance. Brutal pounding effects between guitar riffs, bass, and double bass drum textures, it becomes a massive war before the ambient rain starts to pour down for a brief moment.
The last three minutes adds the climatic battle as Kahney and Monteith duke it out in the streets before Tompkins calls it a truce as the snow begins to pour down, halting the battles for today. ‘Tender’ is where they delve back into their prog-rock roots by channeling San Diego maestros Astra from The Weirding-era, but with a full-insane midsection as the person becomes impossible to cure.
Amos lays down some funky slaps on ‘Burden’ and ‘Sacrifice.’ He pays tribute to people like Headhunters Paul Jackson, Stanley Clarke, John Myung, and Tool’s Justin Chancellor. There’s some heavy rotation on this track, but TesseracT give Amos a chance to come forward and give his bass a massive punch to the face like there’s no tomorrow.
With stronger vibrations, War of Being is a powder keg, waiting to explode. It is a compelling sound with a well-organised, well-structured, and overwhelming release Tesseract has brought to the table.
