Band:	TesseracT
Album:	War Of Being
Style:	Djent, Progressive math metal
Release date:	September 15, 2023
A review by:	musclassia

01. Natural Disaster
02. Echoes
03. The Grey
04. Legion
05. Tender
06. War Of Being
07. Sirens
08. Burden
09. Sacrifice


After the relatively muted response to the positively bitesize Sonder in 2018, TesseracT have pulled out all the stops this time around; new record War Of Being is accompanied by not just a video game based on the album’s concept, but there’s apparently also a novel in the works. As someone who’s had a complicated history with TesseracT, a landmark release such as this provides as good an opportunity as any to re-assess the group.

I was quite slow in becoming a fan of djent (around 2017), so when TesseracT were first making waves in the early 2010s, so it’s perhaps not surprising that I didn’t immediately fall in love with their music. However, even when I started to be won over by the likes of Monuments and Periphery in 2017, I still didn’t quite gel with this particular band, with the strong exception of the magnificent “Of Matter”, and my experiences watching them live at festivals or gig support slots in the 2010s did little to win me over either. That all changed in 2022 with their brilliant headline show at ArcTanGent festival; with my interest in the band invigorated by this performance, I’ve been eager to see what they came up with next in the hope of a similar breakthrough with their recorded output.

“Of Matter” was the opening song of 2013’s Altered State, probably the group’s most acclaimed release, and coincidentally (or not?) their only one not featuring Daniel Tompkins on vocals. This discrepancy shouldn’t reflect negatively on Tompkins’ abilities as a vocalist or artist, as I’ve enjoyed his work outside of the band, including his guest collaborations with Earthside and particularly his 2020 solo release Ruins, which has subsequently stayed in regular rotation for me. Ultimately, I find TesseracT have sometimes been prone to ‘overwriting’ their vocal parts, with the elaborate results losing something in memorability or emotional resonance; it’s an issue I’ve found quite a few djent bands to be susceptible to, and it’s the more direct passion of former singer Ashe O’Hara on “Of Matter” that plays a big role in my fervent enthusiasm for that song in particular.

With all of that said, I am happy to say that I find myself responding more positively to the hooks and intended emotions on War Of Being when compared with Polaris (and Sonder, to a lesser extent). The first clean sung moment on the album, a non-repeated chorus-like passage on opener “Natural Disaster”, immediately delivers soaring hooks that are dripping with emotion. Later, “The Grey” has a lush contrast of big, heavy polyrhythms in the chorus that Tompkins’ smooth, understated approach glides around, and Tompkins shines on “Legion” both in its more subdued, tense, seductive early moments and the more dramatic, explosive parts later on.

However, there’s far more to War Of Being than just its vocals, although it’s worth noting that there’s arguably more harsh vocals from Tompkins here than on any of the band’s other albums since he rejoined. This record is intriguing in that it’s in some ways a recap of TesseracT’s journey thus far; the aggression of One is back, particularly when the album immediately goes on the attack with the intense opening of “Natural Disaster”, but there’s also plenty of atmospheric texturing akin to Altered State, and quite a lot of softer, more accessible material in the vein of songs such as “Hexes” and “Tourniquet” on Polaris. The good thing about this approach is that the end result is a ‘greater than the sum of its parts’ outcome; War Of Being isn’t a rehash of the group’s past, but a refinement and advancement.

The aggression of “Natural Disaster” does make an immediate impression, but it’s the alternation between big hooks and engaging progressive texturing surrounding these intense moments that makes the song such a strong opening statement. “Echoes” is another good example of the group finding a balance between polyrhythmic crunch, quiet introspection and bewitching layered atmospheres. On the softer front, later-album efforts like “Tender” and “Sirens”, despite their reduced runtimes, take listeners on satisfying soft-to-loud journeys, as does “Burden”, albeit with an added extra oomph once the heaviness kicks in.

Towering above the rest of the tracklist, however, are its two longest songs. The 11-minute title track is a treat; it has most of what I would hope a TesseracT long epic would, including some tasty djent grooves, both in more atmospheric sequences and ‘going for the jugular’ moments, and the melodic climax of the track is stirring, albeit not nearly to the same extent as “Of Matter”. “Sacrifice”, despite only being 90 seconds shorter than “War Of Being” (although there are 2 minutes of ambience at the end to account for), has a more singular focus than the title track, with a repeating chorus, but the emotion planted into this track throughout is very cathartic.

Sonder drew some comment at the time of its release for being a paltry 36 minutes long; clocking in at an hour, War Of Being clearly does not have the same issue. Some might conversely find that it starts to drag at times, and to that end I think there’s reason to question the placing of three similarly structured songs (“Tender”, “Sirens” and “Burden”) in close proximity to one another in the tail end of the tracklist; each song is good in isolation, but I’d say one of “Tender” or “Sirens” could easily be cut if there wasn’t a suitable home earlier on the record. Additionally, the lengthy passages of ambience one after another at the end of “Echoes”, “The Grey” and “Legion” are frankly a bit indulgent. Also, while I wouldn’t call the title track bloated, I think there’s sequences that could have been trimmed to concentrate the highlights of the song closer together.

Despite these nitpicks, War Of Being is a strong return for TesseracT after a 5-year gap, and I can imagine most fans of the band ranking it as their best work since Tompkins rejoined, even if it might not displace Altered State in most people’s eyes. The game and novel are fun perks for diehard fans, but the success of this release ultimately comes down to the quality of the music, and where it matters, TesseracT have delivered.