UK prog metal titans TesseracT begin their new era with the announcement of their new EP ARC_ONE : Obscura, and signing with new label home of Nuclear Blast Records.
ARC_ONE : Obscura will be released 5th March 2027. In recognition of the news, the band have revealed the first single, the mighty ‘Crucible’.
Watch ‘Crucible’ here: https://youtu.be/TypJLpqUNiM
Stream: https://tesseract.bfan.link/crucible
Pre-save the EP: https://tesseract.bfan.link/arc-one-obscura
Since making their earliest waves at the crest of the ‘djent’ movement, the leading lights of UK progressive metal have refined a singular approach while constantly toying with expectation. As ambitious now as they’ve ever been, TesseracT‘s new undertaking could go down as their crowning achievement.
ARC_ONE : Obscura marks TesseracT‘s first outing for heavy metal haven Nuclear Blast. The EP also follows what has been their greatest run of touring to date, playing to rapt audiences across Europe, the Americas, Australia and Asia.
The three-song kick-off, Obscura, introduces what will become a multimedia spectacle for their global following.
Vocalist Dan Tompkins explains, “We’re trying to approach this a little bit differently, in terms of not just dropping a full album. We’re trying to work with how music is consumed in general, but also trying to deliver what we think our fans really want from us: a captivating story and a good concept.”
Thematically, ARC_ONE : Obscura picks up where War of Being left off, continuing the album’s exploration of identity. “War of Being was very much about ego and the masks that we wear,” Dan recalls. “The ending to that album was quite important, because it was about tearing the mask away, which is a key lyric from the album. As I, personally, made more music on the back of War of Being, I started to discover more about myself and my own being. I’ve started to really think about what direction we could take the next batch of music in, and I think, for me, it’s very much about understanding what’s left when you’ve exposed who you really are.”
This introspective journey commences with the lead single and ARC_ONE : Obscura‘s opener, ‘Crucible’: a song about suppressing one’s self in order to belong. Its key lyric – ‘if I fit, I disappear’ – summarises what Dan calls “the pressure that shapes and distorts the individual: the fact that we’re being constantly measured and judged and refined until our real, authentic self is just pushed further and further inside us and buried”. It’s a refreshingly episodic piece of music, too, pulling back from the widescreen War of Being to focus on emphatic vocals as well as punchy riffing from Acle Kahney and James Monteith.
Co-produced, mixed and mastered by the band together with Lewis Johns and Pete Miles at Middle Farm, ARC_ONE : Obscura is another testament to TesseracT as trailblazers. Not only is it being released innovatively; it’s home to three immense songs which reiterate why the band upended (and continue to upend) what people thought metal can do. Most exciting of all, this is just the beginning…
TesseracT will be touring ARC_ONE: Obscura across North America, the UK, and Germany, including a marquee show at London’s famed Brixton Academy.
Dates:
North America tour (w/ Entheos and Sunborn):
01/07 New York City, NY — Irving Plaza
01/08 Boston, MA — Paradise Rock Club
01/09 Montreal, QC — Beanfield Theatre
01/10 Toronto, ON — Concert Hall
01/12 Baltimore, MD — Baltimore Soundstage
01/13 Charlotte, NC — The Underground
01/15 Atlanta, GA — Buckhead Theatre
01/16 Orlando, FL — Beacham
01/18 Houston, TX — House Of Blues
01/19 Dallas, TX — Echo
01/20 San Antonio, TX — Aztec Theatre
01/22 Phoenix, AZ — Nile Theater
01/23 Los Angeles, CA — The Belasco
01/24 San Francisco, CA — The Fillmore
01/26 Portland, OR — Roseland Theater
01/27 Seattle, WA — Neptune
01/29 Salt Lake City, UT — The Depot
01/31 Denver, CO — Summit Music Hall
UK/DE tour:
11 March O2 Ritz Manchester UK
13 March O2 Academy Brixton London UK
15 March Die Kantine Köln Germany
16 March Batschkapp Frankfurt Germany
18 March Markthalle Hamburg Germany
19 March Täubchenthal Leipzig Germany
Get your tickets: https://tesseract.os.fan
TesseracT online:
https://www.tesseractband.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/tesseractband
https://www.instagram.com/tesseractband
https://twitter.com/tesseractband
https://open.spotify.com/artist/23ytwhG1pzX6DIVWRWvW1r
