ARE TESSERACT LATE TO THE DJENT PARTY?

So… what do you guys think of TesseracT?

I ask because I’m conflicted about what I think. TesseracT have been a band for many years, and were sporadically releasing songs on the Internet to widespread acclaim in underground circles way before the multitudes of so-called “djent” bands they inspired even existed. But it’s taken all this time — until March 22nd of this year — for them to release a proper full-length album, One (the Concealing Fate EP containing six songs from One was released last year). This puts them in sort of a weird spot; it feels like they’re late to the game, and to the unknowledgeable observer it would certainly appear that way, even though they helped to create that game to begin with.

I’m listening to One as I type this, in particular the new song “Eden” they just released via Facebook, and it just doesn’t seem fresh, doesn’t seem to carry the impact it might have three years ago. Three years ago, or even two, we would’ve been swinging from this band’s nuts and following their every move, fascinated with their take on Meshuggah grooves, ambient guitar textures, and all the other stuff we now call “djent.” Today they just feel like another band in that style (albeit a good one). I feel bad saying it given how long this band has been around in comparison to many of today’s djent bands, but it’s true. I wonder if this album and band will be lost on listeners who don’t know the history [for an interesting take on said history, read a guest article guitarist Acle Kahney wrote for us last year] and have already gone through the cycle of getting into, and subsequently getting out of, bands like Periphery, Veil of Maya, and the dozens of one-man bedroom djent bands that have cropped up. In music, being first can be really important.

That said, I’m not at all implying One is bad or even close to it; it’s actually really good. It just doesn’t quite get me there. Ya know? OK, I’ve made my point; what do you think of TesseracT?

-VN