The ‘Perspective’ E.P. was inspired by an acoustic session the band had filmed in New York last year, whilst on tour with Protest The Hero. The band rearranged their material acoustically for this show and became aware of how natural the compositions sounded when approached from this different perspective. ‘Perspective’ features three acoustic rearrangements of songs from the album ‘One’, a vocal re-recording of the song ‘Eden’ and a cover of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Dream Brother’.

Tesseract have introduced a distinct sound from their contemporaries in the Djent movement and, whilst having intense and complex rhythmical moments, Tesseract have alternately pushed for more subtle dynamics, tender emotion and atmosphere. The mood and style of ‘Perspective’ isn’t far removed from the band’s usual characteristics, nor does it feel out of place in the band’s evolution.

The ‘Perspective’ E.P. is most appropriate at this stage for the band to introduce new singer Elliot Coleman. The softer approach on ‘Perspective’ leaves the floor wide open for Coleman to display his vocals talents, making it the strongest point on this E.P. Coleman displays a soaring vocal dynamic that is natural for the band’s sound, and this shows most particularly on the rearrangements of ‘April’ and ‘Origin’.

It would be a tough call for any artist to succeed at covering Jeff Buckley’s ‘Dream Brother’ but Tesseract manages to make the song their own and the mood of the song fits very pleasingly around the rest of the band’s material. ‘Eden 2.0’ is a much shorter version than on ‘One’ but demonstrates how Coleman’s vocals would typically be placed over a heavier setting. Coleman again has a soaring vocal dynamic that truly makes the hairs stand on end.

The ‘acoustic Djent’ sound on this E.P. is something which ordinarily may just fill in the musical cracks, but in the context of rearranging previous songs, Tesseract create a welcome experiment in-between albums and perfectly warm us to new vocalist Elliot Coleman. This E.P. may not introduce many new fans to the band but will definitely whet the appetite of present fans for the next full length release.

Reviewed by Glen Lester
perspective is out now on Century Media

You’ll like this if… you like your Djent chilled out and relaxed.