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Altered State is the second studio album by British progressive metal band Tesseract, released on 27 May 2013 on Century Media Records.

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	85/100[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Bloody Disgusting	[3]
Exclaim!	7/10[4]
Kerrang!	[1]
Revolver	[5]
Rock Sound	9/10[6]

Altered State
Studio album by Tesseract
Released	27 May 2013
Recorded	2012–2013, 4D Sounds Studio (Recording, mixing & mastering)
Genre	Progressive metal djent
Length	50:41
Label	Century Media
Producer	Acle Kahney, Amos Williams
Tesseract chronology
Perspective (2012) Altered State (2013) Polaris (2015)
Singles from Altered State
"Nocturne" Released: 12 October 2012 "Singularity" Released: 30 April 2013

Background and recording

Altered State is the only full release by the band with vocalist Ashe O'Hara. Amos Williams stated about the new singer: "It's amazing how much one person can change a band. Ashe is full of life and wit. It's brilliant to have such a guy around. You know, we're still Tesseract, but with a slightly more energetic and vibrant colour about us now".[7] Live drums for the album could not be recorded due to financial and time restraints; drums were partially programmed by guitarist Acle Kahney and partially played by drummer Jay Postones on a digital percussion pad.[8]

Release and promotion

The band released their first single, "Nocturne", on 12 October 2012; it was officially uploaded to the Century Media Records' YouTube channel. On the same day "Nocturne" was available as a free download through the Century Media Records' SoundCloud website. On 15 March 2013 the band announced pre-order bundles as well as the official album artwork.^{[citation needed]}

During the months of March and April the band released four trailers leading up to the full album stream of Altered State on 12 May 2013.[9] The album debuted at #94 on the Billboard 200 and at #4 on the Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums.[10]

Reception

Altered State has received universal critical acclaim. On the review aggregator site Metacritic the album has received the score of 85 out of 100, based on five reviews.[1] New Noise Magazine gave the album a five-star rating, saying: "Altered State is not only a masterpiece of progressive metal, this is truly one of the greatest albums ever made, period."[11] Bloody Disgusting website also gave the album a 5/5, saying: "With their sophomore album Altered State, Tesseract have cemented themselves as one of the most creative, daring, and innovative bands of today",[3] whilst The Monolith online magazine called it "probably one of the most complete examples of the genre to date."[12]

Track listing

Personnel

• Ashe O'Hara – vocals
• Acle Kahney – guitar, drum programming
• James Monteith – guitar
• Amos Williams – bass
• Jay Postones - drums

Guest musicians

• Chris Barretto – saxophone in "Of Reality - Calabi-Yau" and "Of Energy - Embers"[14]
• Paul Waggoner - guitar solo in "Nocturne (instrumental)"[15]

Other

• Ion Lucin - artwork[16]

References

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