- Country: United Kingdom
- Style: Progressive metal / Djent
- Label: Kscope / eOne
- Release date: 18 September 2015
Polaris is the album where Daniel Tompkins came back, and you can tell the band built it around his voice. That’s mostly a good thing.
Tompkins is in remarkable form. On “Survival” he floats a soaring chorus over Acle Kahney’s rubbery, off-kilter riffing, and “Messenger” is about as close to a hit single as this kind of band gets, short and bright and tight. “Dystopia” opens with the classic TesseracT lurch, all syncopated chugs under ambient shimmer, and “Hexes” goes somewhere moodier and more interesting. Jay Postones keeps the odd time signatures feeling natural, which is harder than it sounds.
The trouble is that the record is smooth to a fault. The production is spotless, almost too clean, and over nine songs the tracks start to share the same tempo, the same swelling chorus and the same polished sheen. “Tourniquet” and “Seven Names” are pretty but drift by. It’s an easy album to admire and a harder one to love. Fans of the clean side of djent will be happy; those who wanted more bite will reach for One instead.
Best tracks:
Dystopia
Hexes
Survival
Messenger
Author’s rating: 7.2/10
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