Tesseract (band)

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TesseracT

Tesseract live at Tuska Open Air 2013

Background information

Origin Milton Keynes, England, UK

Progressive metal
Genres
djent
Years active 2003present
Labels Century Media
Kscope
Associated acts Periphery
Heights
Between the Buried and
Me
Skyharbor
Meshuggah
The Algorithm
Fellsilent
Haji's Kitchen
The Contortionist
Ever Forthright
 Monuments
Zelliack
Voices From the Fuselage
Concret
Website www.tesseractband.co.uk

Members Acle Kahney

Jay Postones
James Monteith
Amos Williams
Daniel Tompkins

Past members Julien Perier

Abisola Obasanya
Elliot Coleman
Ashe O'Hara
Tesseract (often stylized as TesseracT) is a British progressive metal band from Milton
Keynes, England. The band, formed in 2003, consists of Daniel Tompkins (lead vocals), Alec
"Acle" Kahney (lead guitar & producer), James Monteith (rhythm guitar), Amos Williams (bass,
backing vocals), and Jay Postones (drums, percussion). The band is currently signed
to Kscope.[1] They are credited as one of the bands to pioneer the djent movement in
progressive metal.[citation needed] As of 2015, Tesseract have released three studio
albums: One, Altered State, and Polaris, as well as a live album, Odyssey/Scala, and the
extended plays Concealing Fate, Perspective and Errai.

Contents
[hide]

1History

o 1.1Early years (20032009)

o 1.2One (20092011)

o 1.3Perspective EP (20112012)

o 1.4Altered State (20122014)

 o 1.5Odyssey/Scala and Polaris (2014present)

2Musical style

3Awards and nominations

4Band members

o 4.1Timeline

5Discography

6Videography

7Tours and festivals

8References

9External links

History[edit]
Early years (20032009)[edit]
Tesseract started out in 2003 while founding member Acle Kahney was recording and writing
with his band Mikaw Barish. French vocalist Julien Perier supplied vocals during Tesseract's
early stages, but the logistical difficulties of distance meant that he could not join the band
permanently. After their first full lineup was realised, Tesseract began playing live shows and
compiling material for their debut album; they released a four-song demo in 2007 containing
parts of what would eventually become their debut album One.
One (20092011)[edit]
In 2009, original lead vocalist Abisola Obasanya left the band. He was replaced by Daniel
Tompkins;[2] Acle had come into contact with him having assisted with the production on his
previous band First Signs of Frost's album Atlantic. The band reworked the album's songs with
Tompkins, moving towards a 2010 release. Just before beginning first major tours, Tesseract
released Concealing Fate, a six-track suite which forms the centrepiece of their debut
album, One, which was released on 22 March 2011.[3][4] Later that year, Tesseract toured
throughout the UK in support of One with openers Chimp Spanner and Uneven Structure,
[5]
and also performed at the Sonisphere Festival in Knebworth.
Perspective EP (20112012)[edit]
On 20 August 2011, rumors began spreading that vocalist Daniel Tompkins had left the band,
as Tesseract were seen performing with a different vocalist during a gig at the Craufurd Arms
in Milton Keynes. This was confirmed by the band a few days later on 23 August, when they
introduced Elliot Coleman as the band's new vocalist. [6] Daniel Tompkins went on to sing for
the progressive metal band Skyharbor and the pop rock band In Colour.
In September 2011 an instrumental version of One was digitally released and in October 2011
both the original and the instrumental versions were released on vinyl as a double LP.[7]
During early 2012 Tesseract worked on an acoustic EP inspired by the radio acoustic session
they played in Brooklyn, New York a year before. This came to be known as Perspective and it
was released on 25 May 2012.[8]
Altered State (20122014)[edit]
On 12 June 2012, Tesseract announced that Coleman had amicably left the band: [9] On 7
September 2012 the band announced that they had found their yet-unnamed new vocalist and
would release the single "Nocturne" on 12 October.[10] A series of shows in Europe were also
announced, including a performance at Euroblast Festival.[11][12] It was later revealed that the
new singer was Ashe O'Hara.[13][14] Tesseract issued a short statement about the new vocalist
on their website.[15]
On 28 February 2013, the band unveiled a release date for Altered State, and a full track listing
of the album. The album is a 51-minute continuous piece divided into four large sections (Of
Matter, Of Mind, Of Reality, Of Energy), each of which contains several tracks. On 30 April
"Singularity" was aired on BBC Radio 1's Rock show,[16] and has been released on
their SoundCloud account.[17]
During a phone interview with Metal Injection, Williams stated that the band would be going on
tour in the US during the summer of 2013 and touring Europe in late 2013.
Altered State was streamed in its entirety on 12 May 2013 on Century Media's
official YouTube channel,[18] two weeks before its 27 May release.
Odyssey/Scala and Polaris (2014present)[edit]
On 27 June 2014, it was announced that Tesseract had parted ways with vocalist Ashe O'Hara,
with Dan Tompkins rejoining the band as vocalist and leaving Skyharbor.[19] On 18 May 2015,
Tesseract released Odyssey/Scala, their first live DVD and album compilation.
Shortly after Daniel Tompkins reunited with the band, writing and recording for a third studio
album began with the band making frequent updates on social media of the band in studio
tracking multiple instruments. Tesseract's official Facebook page released a video teaser for
the new album titled Polaris on 10 July 2015. They also released album art and a release date
of 18 September 2015. A full album stream was uploaded to YouTube by Kscope Music on 15
September 2015. A tour was done in November 2015 to support the new album, the opening
bands included The Contortionist, ERRA and Skyharbor.

Musical style[edit]
Tesseract plays a specific style of progressive metal which often features polyrhythmic riffs and
odd time signatures, and several atmospheric layers. The band has stated that they do not
compose their music with specific polyrhythms in mind and play what they feel fits the groove.
They also include a mid-range sounding distorted guitar tone and melodic clean passages
heavily influenced by ambient music.[20][21][22]They also play in the style of the
subgenre djent pioneered by Meshuggah. The vocal style of the band has seen a considerable
shift. On One, Daniel Tompkins employed a mixture of clean and harsh vocals, with an
emphasis on long, drawn out notes. However, Ashe O'Hara's performances on Altered
State dropped the harsh vocals entirely in favour of a more melodic style, with an emphasis on
strong melodic "hooks". In an interview with Metalspree, Ashe stated, "...right now, being
ourselves is to have purely melodic vocals. With One they felt they had to have harsh vocals
in order to be accepted by the community. But, theyve never really wanted to be that type of
band."[23]
In his interview with Metal Injection, Amos Williams stated that the decision to drop harsh
vocals entirely from future material was an unconscious collective decision by the band and
this made the search for a new vocalist extremely hard; his explanation was that many
vocalists with an all clean style do not want to live the "metal" lifestyle of regular touring, or do
not enjoy metal music enough to want to take part in a band in Tesseract's style. While Altered
State did not feature any harsh vocals whatsoever, Polaris sparingly makes use of harsh
vocals on the songs Messenger and Cages.
Throughout their career, the band have produced, mixed and mastered all their material
themselves: Williams is a qualified audio engineer and Acle Kahney has carried out production,
mixing and mastering work for several other progressive metal bands.
Amos Williams stated in an interview[24] that Tesseract's music is relatively reliant on the bass in
comparison to other metal bands: he states that "[The bass] is always on its own little shelf" in
the music and that during the production process "We left a lot of room for there to be sub and
actual bass stuff going on".