“To birth and release the darkness within.”
A tour so good it got a sequel. TesseracT have spent their early 2025 visiting EU and UK spots their War of Being tour missed, as far flung as Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria. As a Cambridge local, I welcome significant shows coming to town, but I can’t say I’m upset if bands would rather sell out a larger venue in London. Still, the opportunity to see TesseracT at their best yet, in a more intimate space, will have been worth the train ride for those out of town (and those of us who were in bed fifteen minutes after doors thank the band sincerely). Being a more low-key tour didn’t mean they slouched on the support slots: the unique instrumental bass project The Omnific travelled from Melbourne just to open the tour, and the French Novelists provided a more pop take on tech metal to balance out the prevailing nerdiness.
Words and photography by Dobbin T, contact Dobbin prior to any use.
Certainly the ideal opener, The Omnific’s set started the techy night off in a surprisingly relaxed manner. Bassists Matt Fackrell and Toby Peterson-Stewart appeared casual focused, strolling gracefully around the stage whilst making their instruments snap, crackle and pop. Those who would dismiss the project as some form of musical masturbation will have been rebuffed by their sense of humour, from the a cappella intro of “The Omnific = Bass” to the video game synths on “Double Malt Ditty”. Drummer Jerome Lematua jumped out of his seat at every opportunity to fire up the crowd. Having two basses must make them a nightmare for the mixing desk, but for the audience the space in the high register gives them so much clarity. A really impressive performance which ultimately felt low-stakes due to the early slot – a burden that all openers must bear.
It’s a very interesting moment to be catching Novelists. After their 2022 record Deja-Vu, lacklustre by our reviewer’s reckoning, they switched up the line up welcoming Camille Contreras to vocal duties. With renewed interest in pop oriented metalcore à la Unprocessed, Polyphia and Spiritbox, they now stand at the tip of a wave that’s ready to break. Much depends on the reception of their upcoming record CODA, as we’ve only a few singles that feature Contreras’ touch. You won’t count me among the skeptics – this line up change has them working like a completely new band. Their success didn’t just depend on Contreras, but if it did, they’d succeed with flying colours. On “Coda” her switches between clean and harsh vocals seem effortless. For one song she picked up a jazzmaster and added shoegaze chords to the crunchy djent rhythms. The trademark solos that Novelists have always wielded remain compelling as ever. Let’s hope CODA does justice to the live act they’ve become.
With just a few dates remaining on part two of Tesseract‘s tour, as super human as they might seem, I expected to see the mask slip, and to see some fatigue behind their performances. I was wrong. Daniel Tompkins is a figurehead for mixed vocal techniques, carefully executing sounds both angelic and foul with very few breaks. TesseracT are a band that many think have been iterated upon to death, but in reality nobody has cracked the many subtleties of their sound and songwriting. Returning to their material a year on, every track felt fresh. The songs of War of Being deliver all the drama, tension, and satisfaction that you’d hope, and never in the way you expect. It’s loose, always gracefully shifting, yet it has all the tightness that tech needs.
A missed opportunity was the set list – there wasn’t a weak moment, but there were relatively few changes from 2024 to 2025. They continue to focus heavily on Sonder, which by now seems like a staging ground for the ideas that were perfected on its follow up. With a deep discography there’s plenty of scope to pull some tracks out of the vault. Choice moments of Concealing Fate and Altered State were welcome. They’ll now be working on a condensed list for their tour supporting Devin Townsend across North America in the spring, and they’ve hinted that their closing set at ArcTanGent 25 will be something special.
Check out our review of War of Being and part 1 of its tour, as well as our reviews of Novelists in the studio and live spaces.