Review Summary: Djent is not a genre, it’s a way (war) of being
TesseracT’s career can be easily summed up by long-standing comparisons to contemporaries, notably Periphery. It’s easy to get caught up in all the discourse and dismiss promising bands due to sounding similar enough that the “lite version” labels start to make sense. Hindsight being 20/20, it shouldn’t have been that easy to dismiss TesseracT; while they were caught in the “djent” crossfire with Periphery, they always had a more pronounced sense of melody about them to balance out the djundjundjun
djuns and heaviness, all the way back to the days of
One. Apart from the magnificent (but somehow still their weakest)
Altered State, and that’s mostly thanks to Ashe O’Hara and his beautiful vocals, it’s not hard to see why even though they do have more standout melodic moments, they never quite caught onto the same level of popularity as other bands.
The War of Being, however, seems to want to change that after 12 long years. By re-emphasizing the heavier grooves not seen since their first album, it’s clear they’re done sitting on their laurels and just making yet another album like
Sonder; as good as it was, it definitely wasn’t going to make many new fans. This shift is not at the expense of the melodic moments either; the 11-minute epic title track “The War of Being” is filled with them alongside one of the coolest-sounding riffs I’ve heard from a djent album in quite literally years. The opener “Natural Disaster” is somehow even stronger on record than it was on the live versions that were recorded overseas last year, and considering how great the live version sounded, that is an
achievement. But how does the rest of the album fare?
Quite well, actually.
The contrast between the new sense of aggression and their trademark of being among the most melodic bands in djent is handled extremely well, on tracks like “The Grey”, “Legion” and “Echoes”. The bass is not only audible, but it’s often the star of the show, with Amos Williams providing some really slick grooves and a
lot of slap bass underneath the beautiful leads. Jay Postones’ drumming is phenomenal throughout the entire album. Maybe Tompkins isn’t a Spencer Sotelo caliber of singer, but he’s close, and as someone who always appreciated the melodic aspects of the genre more than the Meshuggah-esque “beat the pure, unadulterated heaviness into your frazzled synapse” (yes Johnny, I can use big words too) approach, I’m more than willing to take that tradeoff. Still, this feels extremely refreshing from a band that sort of got comfortable being your standard melo-djent fare on their last release. “Tender” represents what this album is about quite well; not afraid to get loud, but also not afraid to build up their writing into something bigger and more emotionally impactful, into one hell of a climax at the end to lead to the other half.
Another thing of note is how huge this album sounds; while it’s still just as slick as albums before, it feels as if from the opening notes of “Natural Disaster”, we are hearing a far more inspired effort.
The War of Being is equal parts angry and equal parts ethereal. It’s been said that the callback to their debut
One is so strong that one could say “they finally made Two”, but that’s not enough; they finally made
Three. Not to say it’s backloaded, as the first half is phenomenal, but the closing half might just be the strongest I’ve heard this year since
Life Is But a Dream… dropped and set the world on fire with its ambition and concept. “Sirens” is among the most atmospheric songs they’ve done in years, relying on effect-laden reverberated guitars and unique drum rhythms, and accompanied by Tompkins channeling an almost Ashe O’Hara type of vibe with his softer vocals. “Burden” continues that atmosphere quite well, and “Sacrifice” is one of the strongest tracks here.
The War of Being is everything
Djent Is Not a Genre could have and should have been. TesseracT really came out swinging with this one; the 5-year wait between
Sonder and this was well-worth it. Again, it feels as if they finally made
Three. The huge production, the phenomenal bass playing, the drums, the renewed aggression in the riffs and vocals, while still retaining the atmosphere that they’re known for? Sign me the fuck up.
