One
Reviewed by Rob Acocella
One
is the debut album by TesseracT, released on Century Media records. This album has a great vibe to it, and it combines melody and rage almost seamlessly into one tight little package. The songs have the feel of real music craftsmanship and each one takes you deeper into the groove of the album than the last. Listening closely to the instrumentation you can tell that this wasn't one of those albums that was rushed and put out just for the sake of putting something out. What you have here are carefully plotted rhythms with patterns that seem both simple and intricate all at once. The entire album has its own ambiance and it holds to it even when switching gears from melodic to heavy. That's a refreshing quality in a music scene where artists tend to blow their own albums apart at times by choosing the wrong combo of songs, or the wrong track list sequence, resulting in an interrupted listening experience.
is the debut album by TesseracT, released on Century Media records. This album has a great vibe to it, and it combines melody and rage almost seamlessly into one tight little package. The songs have the feel of real music craftsmanship and each one takes you deeper into the groove of the album than the last. Listening closely to the instrumentation you can tell that this wasn't one of those albums that was rushed and put out just for the sake of putting something out. What you have here are carefully plotted rhythms with patterns that seem both simple and intricate all at once. The entire album has its own ambiance and it holds to it even when switching gears from melodic to heavy. That's a refreshing quality in a music scene where artists tend to blow their own albums apart at times by choosing the wrong combo of songs, or the wrong track list sequence, resulting in an interrupted listening experience.In all honesty, I've been quite bored with the Prog scene for a very long time, but this kind of Prog Metal is exactly what has been lacking for years. TesseracT is a breath of fresh air in a musical atmosphere that was getting very stale recently.
TesseracT is currently on tour promoting One, and I'm going to be honest, if you miss out on their performances, it's your own loss. I have a feeling these guys are going to be making a much bigger name for themselves in the near future, so keep your eyes out for when they come to your town and be sure to get out and see them, and pick up the album.
, and I'm going to be honest, if you miss out on their performances, it's your own loss. I have a feeling these guys are going to be making a much bigger name for themselves in the near future, so keep your eyes out for when they come to your town and be sure to get out and see them, and pick up the album.Rating: 5/5
, the group shines true and their energy is abundant throughout. The listener is left wanting more yet satisfied with this final product all the same, as the band has put out yet another artful collection of songs that are flawlessly performed.
. What is there to say about Deicide that most of their fans don't already know? For one, it's another chapter of what I call "Hollywood Satanist" lyrics wrapped up around a big package of blast beats and furious guitar solos.
. The technical ability that they display is key to appreciating the music. Death Metal often suffers from everything winding up garbled into one continuous tone, with limited chances to pick up on actual melodies aside from in the solos and song intros. Deicide is no exception here, and it's not like you're going to be making out much of the actual words here, which, as a side note, is kind of backwards since Benton obviously has a message to get across.
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: They put out a best-of compilation that isn't exactly a compilation in the traditional sense. What they did was take all the songs they considered to be the best from the last 2.5 decades and rearranged them with the help of a orchestra, a choir, and various other collaborators. What you have are brand new, more epic versions of all your favorite songs.
" which combines "Helloween," "Keeper of the Seven Keys," and "The King For 1,000 Years." By the time this 17-minute monster was done, so was I. I really liked this new approach to their music at first, but after a while it got tired, and I think cramming those tunes into one track is what did me in. Everything after that sounded the same. Perhaps I need to be a more hardcore Helloween fan to really appreciate this kind of thing, but I really did like it at first, I promise you I did.
. Released on Steve Vai's own Favored Nations the tracks are all here, including some great live cuts. Tracii Guns is still his badass self on guitar and with Jizzy Pearl on vocals what you get is one of the grittiest (re)releases in recent years. If you want to feel as though you are still partying on the strip like it's 1989 then pick up 
of central NJ band Mutiny Within has been out since February and these guys have been touring pretty heavily in support of it. This band took what started out as a Children of Bodom tribute band and turned it around into an original-song-writing monster. 
, they made it clear to anyone who has not yet heard the new material that they were back to their classic sound with no compromises. The one-two punch of "Shock" and "Edgecrusher" followed.
and played "Martyr" before switching gears to the more somber "Final Exit."
" which featured the chant "BP Must Pay" through the middle. The show was closed out with "Self Biased Resistor," "Zero Signal," "Hunter-Killer," and of course, "Replica."