TesseracT - Concealing Fate

[Plankis]

The EP is out!

Here's a Spotify link: http://open.spotify.com/album/4q3qaDjBo4VV1TAMc0tH5k

I'm on my 3rd re-run and counting, really enjoying it.
A bit bummed that it wasn't a full length. I was really looking forward listening to Eden and April song. The teaser for those has sounded very promising. But I do think it was a good move releasing Concealing Fate on its own, if Concealing Fate would have been on the album all the other songs would've looked like fillers.

 

[thefyn]

An EP? haha.

It had to be an EP to keep it real in T's mega delayed world.

Awesome band though. But the strive for perfection could be their undoing.

 

[JeffTD]

Musically it kicks ass, and Dan owns all kinds of shit, vocally.

Mixwise though... pretty bad.


Seeing them Thursday with Devin Townsend, though, so I can't really complain either way!

 

[Ataraxia2320]

I thought I was the only one who didnt like the mix too much. I mean I wouldnt call it bad, but theirs no balls to the guitars.

Still I love the band. Miss the old singer a bit though(even though im more than happy with the new guy, he also pwns).

Edit - as i dont have spotify im basing my view on the mix from the video they released.

Edit 2 - Anyone actually know where I can get all the old demos? Im going to e mail the bands myspace but if anyone can point me in the right direction thatd be great.

 

[Sickan]

Won't listen to it on Spotify before I recieve the CD >: C

 

[Aaron Smith]

Mixwise though... pretty bad.

Eh, I think "pretty bad" is too harsh. I haven't listened on the studio monitors yet, but my biggest gripe is that the bass seems a bit loud/heavy in the low mids. The guitar tone seems to work fine for their style of playing. I really dig the snare actually- great smack while still being very roomy sounding. The kick sits well, I just prefer the more soggy Sneap-esque kind of attack. Overall, pretty damn good sounding I think, and musically it has a much more mature/dramatic vibe than Periphery, which is something that I really dig.

 

[Erik Monsonis]

Disappointed by the music itself... and really disappointed by the mix. Come on...

 

[Josh Burgess]

checking it out when I get home later tonight... hoping I won't be hearing superior drums and plasticy axe-fx guitar tones...

 

[JeffTD]

Eh, I think "pretty bad" is too harsh. I haven't listened on the studio monitors yet, but my biggest gripe is that the bass seems a bit loud/heavy in the low mids. The guitar tone seems to work fine for their style of playing. I really dig the snare actually- great smack while still being very roomy sounding. The kick sits well, I just prefer the more soggy Sneap-esque kind of attack. Overall, pretty damn good sounding I think, and musically it has a much more mature/dramatic vibe than Periphery, which is something that I really dig.

It's not as bad as I originally viewed it to be, the more I listen to it, but I hate the guitar tone and really think the kick is quite horrible, but I've never liked any of Acle's kicks. There are some issues with vocal levels at some spots to my ears, but that's about it.

Definitely waaaay more mature than Periphery's debut release, and I love that they didn't go the programmed drum route.

 

[Morgan C]

I don't mind the mix at all. It's not mindblowing, but it's not distractingly bad.

I'm interested in this new trend of higher/jazzier tuned toms, with some slight discordance. This Tesseract album has them, as has the new BFMV and new Jack's Mannequin (esp song "American Love").. it's a lot more than just a tick or boom, it has that slightly-out-of-tune ring that actually sounds quite cool.

 

[Cyanide_Anima]

Man, I fucking love these guys...but I have trouble figuring out which track is which on the EP. The same ambient sparkly clean stuff over almost every track (Could be part of the overall theme of the EP though...and maybe not their fault, since 100 other bands are doing this kind of clean stuff now and it's kinda getting old 'Ding dingDing dingDing dingDONNNGGG'...). I don't like the kick or the bass tone much. Sometimes the bass sounds huge, and other times it's hardly there? The slappity-pop bass playing is kind of hard to make out clearly, which kinda sucks because I love that stuff (too much highend?). Epic Vocals. I agree with Jeff that the vox should have had some (more) automation. My opinion could change, I've only listened to the EP about 10 times since Saturday. Right now I'd still give the music an 9/10.

These guys are soooo fucking tight live! I saw them in Seattle on Saturday with Devin Townsend (fuckin' FUCK yeah!) and they had better sound and played much tighter than Devin's band did.

 

[Ola Englund]

hmmm... I kinda expected a more crushing entrance of the band over the ambient stuff in the first song. That said the ambient stuff is way to loud.

but I'm going to listen through everything before making my judgement.

 

[Rob Logic]

I love the snare, don't like the kick. Sounds like misguided compression attack/release settings that are ruining it for me on the kick. I can get passed it tho. To me as a whole it sounds refreshing because it is a bit on the different side. I would have been disappointed if it sounded like programmed drums with the same tired drum library.

 

[guitarguru777]

Love the tunes, but the guitar could be beefier. Not bad though. Much better then Periphery for sure.

 

[Erkan]

SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!! Dan is fucking AWESOME at the mic. Hooooly shit, he's gonna make it into my favorite singers list. He can like actually scream and make it sound musical... unlike Periphery's singer (hate to bash but seriously, that dude does not do the screams well).

Kind of hate the kick though, just too boomy and low-middy .. and muddy at that. Guitars needed a little more balls, the bass guitar could perhaps use some grit but I'm not sure listening on regular computer speakers so... yeah. Way too much use of spatial effects for my taste, I mean it's cool here and there but there's like always an abundance of delays and shit.

But seriously, what the hell Dan... he just owns the mic so hard haha it's ridiculous!

The drums aren't programmed btw? Sure as hell sounds programmed to me... I hope they are programmed because if this is the definition of "real drums" in this genre, then I'm not sure where the hell we're going in this industry/genre.

 

[blackcom]

Kinda funny how many people here are bashing the product of one or more bands that could easily play the ass of most people in this thread.

Quality and taste is not the same thing, btw.

EDIT: I heard the mix now.... yeah, kinda agree...but if this is the way they wanted it to sound then that is the way it is suposed to sound.

My own impression: "Fizzy" guitars way too low in the mix... also, the drums sounds kinda "unfocused" and lacks "smack"... oh, well...

I remember some clips Acle put out some time ago with a TLM193 on a Mesa cab...sounded alot better... IMO... more "meaty"...

@JeffTD....yeah, kinda agree about your arguement....that's why I used the word "funny"... ait?

 

[JeffTD]

SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!! Dan is fucking AWESOME at the mic. Hooooly shit, he's gonna make it into my favorite singers list.

He probably is my favorite singer, at this point. Check out the album he did with First Signs of Frost right before joining TesseracT... fucking marvelous.


Drums aren't programmed, though - Aaron talked to Acle at the Seattle show, and I plan on asking a few more details when I see them Thursday.

Kinda funny how many people here are bashing the product of one or more bands that could easily play the ass of most people in this thread.

Quality and taste is not the same thing, btw.

Yeah, and the argument that we have to be as technically proficient as someone in order to critique their work is horseshit, too.

 

[guitarguru777]

Ya but just cause you can edit the shit out of your guitar tracks to make it sound solid doesn't make you good either, and to say something like that is just foolish. Honestly the quality of the guitar playing has nothing to do with the guitar tone, but then again someone who makes a comment like you did wouldnt know anything about that would you

Besides, um ... I could play the ass off these guys as could Jeff and most of the other guys in this thread. Thats not to brag, it just to prove the point that what you said smells more like bullshit fanboi'ism then anything else.

Just we don't go DJENT DJENT DJENT and tune to the bowels of hell on a 900 string guitar doesn't mean we couldn't play like this. We choose not to. There is a big difference.

 

[blackcom]

Ya but just cause you can edit the shit out of your guitar tracks to make it sound solid doesn't make you good either, and to say something like that is just foolish. Honestly the quality of the guitar playing has nothing to do with the guitar tone, but then again someone who makes a comment like you did wouldnt know anything about that would you

Besides, um ... I could play the ass off these guys as could Jeff and most of the other guys in this thread. Thats not to brag, it just to prove the point that what you said smells more like bullshit fanboi'ism then anything else.

Just we don't go DJENT DJENT DJENT and tune to the bowels of hell on a 900 string guitar doesn't mean we couldn't play like this. We choose not to. There is a big difference.

Hehe, your are a funny dude.

But no matter how you put it...it's not "wrong"... but as I said it IS kinda "funny" that people choose to bash the work of that skilled musicians... allmost as funny as how much you react to me pointing it out. Quality and taste is not the same thing. Obviously is sounds like it does for a reason, no?

 

[guitarguru777]

If you you look back over the thread no one claimed their musicianship was lacking. Everyone praises the musicianship. We are critiquing the production on the CD, and you yourself said you didn't like the guitar tone. So wouldnt that make you a hypocrite?

If you are referring to Periphery and how most of us state TesseracT is a better band then I would ask you to talk to Misha from Periphery as he himself is a big TesseracT fan. Misha is brilliant as a musician, his choice in guitar tones is something else, and we still don't see eye to eye on it. As for the other 2 guitarists in Periphery ... to me they are still just filler, and I have stated that to Misha on many occasion. Misha is the heart and soul of Periphery plain and simple. Its his baby.