TesseracT: Sonder

Seven years ago, when the English djent standard-bearers Tesseract put out their debut, nobody could have guessed the band would manage more than two albums. After the trouble with their vocalists, Tesseract barely kept their heads above water, but they kept swimming. Now it’s 2018, and after three years away Tesseract are back with their fourth album, following the not-so-successful Polaris. The band wasn’t slacking, they just took a bit more time, and quite a few tours got done in the meantime.

At first glance, Sonder can be a real letdown, because it runs just over 36 minutes. So Tesseract have delivered the shortest record of their career, but the question now is how good those 36 minutes actually are.

Sonder opens with Luminary, which maybe isn’t the best showcase of what the band can do. The song definitely hits hard, the sound is as polished as ever, and Daniel Tompkins’ vocals stand out best, especially in the chorus. A solid start, but what follows shows the band’s true face. King is slower and more rhythmically varied, with more ambient touches too. On top of that, the band surprises with an unconventional structure, and Tompkins even throws in a few screams, so there’s no shortage of variety. Definitely a bright spot on the album, and one that’s made it into the live set as well.

After the calm intermezzo Orbital, Tesseract serve up Juno, a punchy, groovy track that’s incredibly well crafted; the rhythm section simply shines, and the bass guitar gets its moment too. After that the album mellows out quite a bit, with Beneath My Skin emphasizing ambience and atmosphere, though of course it has a heavy section in the style of the mighty Meshuggah as well. Mirror Image works similarly, building up nicely until the end, which is then backed up by some hefty distortion. Otherwise the emphasis is more on ambience, which gives the record as a whole some diversity. There’s more punch in Smile, which the band released as a single before the album. Smile is quite different from the original version, with industrial inserts too, adding yet another shade to an already rich soundscape. Smile flows into the shorter track The Arrow, which wraps up this short ride.

With Sonder, Tesseract kind of combine elements of their past albums. The band is still technical, atmospheric, melodic and unpredictable, but the album as a whole doesn’t win you over like the first two. Like its predecessors, Sonder is superbly produced, with everything polished down to the last detail. The sound is rich and practically begs for a good PA. To sum up, with their fourth album Tesseract confirm they haven’t run out of ideas yet, it just feels like they’re searching for themselves a bit.

Rating: 8/10