Live Review: TesseracT at The Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London (01/12/18)

To the surprise of no-one, the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London has sold out for the last date of TesseracT’s UK tour. A tour that is in support of their five-piece’s excellent new album, Sonder which you can read our review of here.

Just looking at the stage before the band has even arrived tells us that we’re in for something special tonight as it has a real minimalist look about it. A drum set, a load of lights and a simple backdrop giving the impression that the progressive metallers are all about the music and not a potentially distracting show. That being said when they do get going, the light show that accompanies the songs would be enough to send even the lightest epileptic sufferer into a fit.

The Empire is packed and I mean packed to the rafters with fans desperately anticipating the moment the house lights go down and TesseracT take to the stage. The roar of approval that greets this is simply astonishing and by the grins on the faces of the band, you can tell they’re enjoying it too.

Kicking off with Luminary, our least favourite song from the new album, the sound is immense even if you’re upstairs right at the back. Watching a sea of people in head banging sync is amazing and the pits open constantly.

Frontman Daniel Tompkins is certainly in the moment too as during Concealing Fate, Part 2: Deception he takes advantage of the seething pile of people to stage dive riding a wave of hands safely.

The rest of the band is a little more static but their focus is on delivering tightness with their instruments and they deliver hands-down. Survival, Hexes, Juno and King all sound incredible but it is Smile off Sonder that really hits the mark. Already one of TesseracT’s more popular songs (our favourite off the album), it goes down an absolute treat.

The first time seeing TesseracT live for us won’t be the last, that’s for sure.