Album Rating: 4.5

This essay has been growing on me with each listen. At first it sounded like a decent repeat of Altered State. Now I love it almost as much as One. Even more at times. Goddamn you Tourniquet...you're like onions for my ears.

Album Rating: 4.0

This album is so colorful and emotional. Like... seriously... How does this bore people?

Album Rating: 3.0

Probably because it's not as good as you think it is?

bc is boring?

Album Rating: 4.0

Naw that's not it.

Album Rating: 3.0

Listen to it with less quaaludes next time

Album Rating: 3.5

eees boreeeng



I actually like most of this now but its still like a 3.4

Album Rating: 3.0

it's a solid middle of the road snooze fest with 2 decent tracks and 7 zzzzzzz's

Album Rating: 4.0

I think you guys are just afraid of this album and how great it is.

Album Rating: 3.5

come on baby (don't fear the album)baby take my hand

Album Rating: 2.0

boring. once again, they have a good thing going, but its ruined by bland songwriting and monotony. altered state is probably better

Album Rating: 4.5

Holy shit guys if you have the chance to see them on their current tour with The Contortionist, DO IT. They were even better than when I saw them with Ashe. Just nailed it. Sounded so close to the albums. It was also sweet getting to hear Dan sing most of Concealing Fate.



Unfortunately for a Polaris tour, they only did Dystopia, Messengers, and Survival, and then the rest was Altered State and One. But hearing them play April was FUCKING FANTASTIC.



Edmonton has this really shitty venue called The Starlite Room. Grimy, nasty place. There's no back alley -- it loops around back to the main front sidewalk. James Monteith walks out to get a hoodie. Man that guy is tall. Friend complimented him. I gave him a thumbs up. He rushes back in. LOL. And the last time they played here, some really awkward guys who were first in line were wishing Acle happy birthday when they all left to walk down Whyte Ave to grab food. Like, really reaching for a reason to initiate verbal contact. Cringe.

Album Rating: 4.5

Watched them play in Vancouver a couple nights ago and I'd give them a 6.5/10. That's also coming from someone who loves TesseracT and 5'ed Altered State.



Brought my girl and she fell asleep. These types of bands have very little energy live. If it wasn't for the light show, I definitely see most people losing interest.



Anyway, Dan killed April. Best song of the show. All the stuff from One sounded especially great. New stuff was excellent too. Mix overall was amazing.



Dan needs to stop doing Altered State stuff. His voice simply is not built for the upper range stuff Ashe did on that record. He sounds like a granny squealing when he tries it. He also does this pseudo shaky thing with his voice in an attempt to be emotional. That didn't work at all. Dan also failed with mic placement when doing falsetto. He kept pulling away so much that his voice was barely audible.



The rest of the band were on point.



BTW The Contortionist were painfully boring. One of the least entertaining live shows I've ever seen.

Album Rating: 4.0

"BTW The Contortionist were painfully boring. One of the least entertaining live shows I've ever seen."



yeah well their last album was pretty boring as shit so I'm not surprised about that.

Album Rating: 4.5

To be fair I wasn't asleep the entire time. The Exoplanet stuff got me up for it's duration lol.

Album Rating: 4.5

I'm going to see them in NYC on the seventh next month (I'm flying home early specifically to see this show...which is not how I explained it to my boss). My body is ready.

Album Rating: 3.5

seeing them t o n i g h t

Album Rating: 4.5

>BTW The Contortionist were painfully boring. One of the least entertaining live shows I've ever seen.



See, the whole show seemed to be medium-energy.



I missed Skyharbour, and while not a fan of ERRA, they were alright, though their drummer kept yawning. Vocalist was at least trying to talk to the audience, which I appreciate.



I saw The Contortionist first not long after Lessard joined, so they were playing Exoplanet stuff, and they had a great energy.



Seeing them now, after dropping Language, it was a much (literally) darker show with less movement. They were going for some mysterious/atmospheric vibe. I think this has everything to do with the album they were promoting. Very low-energy, except when Exoplanet showed it's head for a few songs. Same with Tesseract. Problem with this meant that there was very minimal "crowd work". Dan mentioned the tragedy in Paris once because it had just happened that night, but beyond that, almost no speaking, no humor, no enthusiasm.



That being said, the performances themselves were fantastic. Just a little autopilot-y.



Maybe it helped knowing every song and every lyric, because the way the vocals were mixed live, it would have been hard to tell what was going on if someone wasn't really familiar with the material.

Album Rating: 3.5

dan had bronchitis the night I saw him and still put in work

Album Rating: 4.0

Debating on going to their Denver show this weekend. So I guess the question is, is it worth it?