Back in 2010 UK prog metal quintet TesseracT were just starting out, introducing themselves to the world with a 27-minute concept piece Concealing Fate, aheads of their debut album One. This was the band's very first piece in Prog Magazine...
You’ll be forgiven if you haven’t come across TesseracT before. Having formed from what is quite possibly the geekiest musical scene ever – it was born, raised and still thrives in internet-based communities – it’s not a stretch to say that the British prog metal quintet is quite a modern phenomenon. The sub-genre in question has the peculiar title – djent. The band explain:
“It was back in 2002 or 2003 when the online community of producer-musicians who spawned the bands of this new wave of progressive metal began to come together,” says Acle Kahney, lead guitarist and chief songwriter of TesseracT. “A key factor that set this community apart from others is that it had no geographical base. People from all over the world were sharing ideas, recording parts for each other and even jamming via the internet. Like punk came from the bars, clubs and rehearsal rooms of New York, this scene started in chat rooms, forums and home studios. This would have been impossible without the internet.”
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‘Djent’ is an onomatopoeic word used to describe the iconic chord that Swedish prog metallers Meshuggah have trademarked over the past two decades. It was via their online forum that Kahney originally learnt how to play the complex power chord. When Meshuggah’s lead guitarist, Fredrik Thordendal, heard some of Kahney’s riffs on another forum and complimented them, it was all the encouragement he needed to forge ahead. But TesseracT are far from being a tribute act.
“These influences… you can’t really hear them in the music – they’re just what we like, so it’s fairly subtle. If you ask the boys from Meshuggah, they’d say ‘Those boys sound nothing like us,’” says bassist Amos Williams matter-of-factly. “It’s a great compliment though because I’m sure you’ve seen them live so to be lumbered in the same class as them is just awesome.”
And what of the name? A tesseract is a complex, four-dimensional, cube-like geometric entity that has been used in surrealism and also within references to the unknown. Coupled with the internet-based origins of their music, surely this is the ultimate geek band?
“Honestly, man, people just assign so much more to the name than what you actually think about when you start things. The reality is we just like music that makes us dance,” sighs Williams. “Yeah, the music’s pretty progressive, but it’s not Rush is it? It’s not exactly Dream Theater. The virtuosity comes in the details and the subtlety, rather than… over-playing, shall I say.”
TesseracT started out back in 2003 as an archetypal djent band in a teenage Acle Kahney’s bedroom. What started as an outlet for creativity and experimentation grew and grew and the young guitarist posted clips of his technically accomplished heavy guitarwork on said forums, taking the resulting feedback on board and gradually improving his technique. He is a shining example of making the most of the modern world we live in.
Embodying the trans-national vibe of the genre, Frenchman, Julien Perier supplied vocals but the logistical difficulties meant that the band – completed by guitarist James Monteith, Jay Postones on drums and Williams – settled on Dan Tompkins on vocals in the summer of 2009. Now, while the band is musically attuned to the discordant sounds of their Swedish inspiration, Dan Tompkins brings a vast, haunting and melodic side to their sound. Eschewing screams for the majority of the songs, Tompkins’ soaring melodies bring a whole new world of accessibility and, with a US tour supporting Devin Townsend approaching, user-friendliness is exactly what they are aiming for.
“Our main hopes from the tour is to seriously raise our profile,” says Monteith. “It will definitely be the longest tour we’ve ever done – and the fact we’re playing with Devin and the fact that’s it in the States makes it by far the biggest thing we’ve undertaken, so we’re hoping that a lot of people are willing to check us out.”
“I imagine a lot of people will go to watch Devin,” Postones says on the matter. “Anyone who’s there to see us will either know who we are from listening to us on the internet – or hopefully they’ll definitely know who we are at the end.”
As the band’s first trip to North America and their longest stint on the road, Williams is at pains to point out how much it means to them. “We like music that we can share with other people, and that really is about not only being able to do this on the record but also doing it live,” he says. “We’ve spent the last three days just solidly rehearsing for this tour and we’re all knackered as a result! That just shows the importance of us being able to play well. We take a little bit of pride in what we do.”
None of this would have been possible without the support of the worldwide record deal the band signed with Century Media Records earlier in 2010. Having been signed by the US division it was clear that the label has grand plans for them Stateside and have started well by placing them on this tour. It’s an important area for TesseracT to gain exposure. Again we return to the world of technology and its inherently traceable exploits as James Monteith, displaying a high level of business nous, explains why the decision was made to sign to an internationally renowned label.
“We were looking at our stats on the net and we get 60 per cent of web hits from the US and most of the rest from mainland Europe,” says Monteith. “We’re not really focusing on America, but the US office of Century Media want us to go out there quite a bit.
“We’ve found in general after touring a few times that a lot more people in Europe are into our sort of sound than in the UK, which is interesting,” Kahney continues. “We can’t quite figure out why that is. We’ve got the wrong haircuts maybe! Hopefully people in the UK will come round to us, though.”
There is already talk of returning to America and touring Europe next year to support the release of their debut album which has also been produced by Acle Kahney and Amos Williams. In the meantime, however, you can whet your appetite with conceptual EP, Concealing Fate.
“It’s a concept; it’s a 27-minute long track in six parts and that means 27 minutes from the album but the album will have a lot of extra material on it,” explains the bassist. “The EP has six songs designed around each other. Now that’s a very prog thing, to have a concept record…”
Indeed it is. The title track started life as a two-minute clip, and then the band built the other 25 minutes around it, weaving riffs into other sections and bringing the whole piece of music back around from the last to the first part, completing a body of work that is quite rightly described as coherent. Kahney denies that the concept has any real message other than aesthetically.
“There’s no real story to it,” he shrugs. “I know Dan sang along to it but musically there are no intentional themes – just good grooves pieced together into a package. Some of the music from part one appearing in part six wraps it all up a little bit, but it wasn’t really a conscious thing. It’s just what happened after refining it for a couple of years.”
“It felt like it was more done and dusted when we finished mixing the album to be honest,” Kahney answers when asked whether this first release feels like the culmination of the best part of a decade’s work. “When it’s released it’ll be nice to have it set in stone, but it’ll nice to move on because we’ve already started writing album two. We’ve already got almost half an album’s worth of music.”
After a couple of years bubbling just under the surface of the UK’s prog metal underground, it appears that it’s time for TesseracT to show the world exactly who they are. You just get the feeling with this band that you won’t be asking questions about them for long.
After all, we do know that geeks will inherit the Earth.
