When the title track/first single for War Of Being came out, I remember being intrigued. I hadn't yet seen any other band take the progressive metal/djent genre as exploratively as Periphery had, but TesseracT pulled it off in a very different flavour. Where Periphery took the genre to new creative limits in very heavy fashion, TesseracT seemed to be the band that did it in a more artsy fashion, leaning closer to progressive rock stylings and letting ideas evolve and develop more within a song. Their riffs and melodies weren't overly fast-paced and chaotic as they tend to do in djent, but it was equally technical all the same, aiming for a more stable and sturdy display of mastery.
The actual album itself kept me on the fence for a long time. I remember the first few playthroughs left me grasping for anything to love about the album, knowing that there should be something to love about it, but I just couldn't put a finger on anything. I kept going back to the album again and again, knowing that some albums need a lot of time to grow on me, but even now I can't say I'm fully in love with it. There are some very obvious and easy things about this album that I'm happy to publicly commend, but I don't think it's become much of a favourite.
TesseracT definitely has a knack for this blend of progressive rock and metal that they have on their hands. They pull it off seamlessly on every song, building captivating passages of rhythmic prowess and melodic tastefulness. Very few moments are designed for shock value or impact, but all of them are well-built and musically intricate. They don't have a tendency to play fast or extremely heavy either (with the exception of some moments like The Grey's chorus), and a lot of the harsh vocals are used in a very textural way. It leaves way for a lot of nuances to develop in the drumming and for the guitarwork to hold space, which they do a lot. There aren't a lot of notes played and a lot of them are left to ring out and sustain in very interesting ways. Credit where it's due, they have some really good songwriting going on. I noticed they love to put in a groove section that's mostly sequencing of muted notes while the drummer does some wild polyrhythmic stuff in the background, not the most astounding but I love how meditative it is, reminds me of Animals As Leaders a bit.
I guess my main gripe with the album was that, for a long time, I had nothing too substantial to grab hold onto and say that I loved about the album. It wasn't an issue of underdeveloped ideas, no, it's pretty fully fleshed out as it is, but I couldn't seem to find a strong foothold on the listening experience. It was one of those albums that are great to let play in the background but I wouldn't end up remembering most of it. It was only after repeated playthroughs that I started getting familiar with some of their catchier songs and moments. For an album to take so long to actually find itself a place in my music consciousness is a bad sign.
Maybe it's just a matter of taste, I have no doubt that they are objectively a very good band pioneering their own sound, and they deserve all the success they have now and much more. But taste is most of what makes music special, and I will have to say it did not end up in my hall of fame. Which sounds like a damning sentence, but in reality it's still getting a pretty high rating, I just went into it thinking it would blow my mind a lot more. Expectations, huh. Solid work though, I had some favourites to cherrypick from this album and it was definitely unique, and a technical awe in every right.
Rating: 7/10