The Heir(s) to the Meshuggah Throne?

Following the Devin Townsend Project show in Chicago the other evening (which took place following our interview with Devin that you can find below and at our YouTube channel), I came away with two immediate thoughts; 1) no one in this entire universe is on the same wavelength, musically or mentally, as Mr. Townsend, and 2) TesseracT is a band everyone should watch the balls out for.

Srsly. These guys pwn.

 While The DTP undeniably killed it at Lincoln Hall, TesseracT left many people in the crowd visibly impressed. My first experience of their unique mixture of clean, melodious vocals, unconventional song structures and poly-rhythmic chug-a-lugs was overwhelmingly positive. I spoke to other attendees who also voiced a similar sentiment. And... wait a second... that sounds a whole hell of a lot like a description of Periphery (as pointed out by TesseracT's very own Acle Kahney)! MetalSucks (terrorist fist jab to those guys) and many other metal blogs have helped popularize the term "djent" to describe the sound of bands inspired by Meshuggah, the pioneers of all things heavy + extremely challenging in terms of music theory. Conincientally, djent was actually coined by Periphery's own Misha "Bulb" Mansoor. TesseracT and Periphery, along with a handful of other metal acts such as Monuments or even Animals as Leaders, combine the heaviness and creativeness of Meshuggah with new elements of their own. These guys have taken the ball and run with it in terms of djent, and are fortunately garnering a great deal much deserved press.

Meshuggah is by no means close to their end (as far as we know) despite numerous bumps in the road. But I doubt (and essentially know for a fact) that we here at the 'Topia are not alone in thinking that Periphery and TesseracT together are poised to assume the reigns from Meshuggah in terms of groove based metal with arduously crafted rhythms and the catchiest fucking headbanging passages one could ever ask for. Watch out for TesseracT (who are heading to India in December and should be back to tour Europe and the Americas following the drop of their debut full length entitled One in 2011) and Periphery (who are currently out on tour with Darkest Hour and native Chi-townians Veil of Maya). The future of djent depends on them. /Luke Skywalker joke

- Jack Attack