TesseracT have been around in some form or other since 2003, but it was only in 2010 that they first put out something in the form of the Concealing Fate EP. I'd been intrigued by TesseracT from a connection to Periphery as I was starting to check out djent, but at the time I was not that impressed by the EP. The 6 tracks from that EP make up just over half of One, so I was prepared to have only lukewarm feelings about their debut full-length.

The album opens with "Lament," which spends its first minute with some spacey ambiance before vocalist Dan Tompkins comes in. Tompkins is one of those relatively rare vocalists who sounds equally at home in his clean voice and screaming; in addition, he's particularly effective somewhere in the middle, with a powerful voice that carries the melody with just a little bit of breakup to add the screaming texture.

The music switches between the ambient sounds and the expected polyrhythmic riffs, although on most of the heavy riff sections of "Lament" the vocals are still the focal point and the clever timings come to the fore during the softer, more ambient sections. This is not true everywhere on the album, as "Nascent" reserves some space for a guitar and drums breakdown at the end.

That brings us to the centerpiece "Concealing Fate," which I think works better in the context of One than it did on its own. I think the reason is that it's less adventurous in places and sounds more derivative of Meshuggah. This in particular the tone set on part one, "Acceptance," a sprawling piece that ultimately comes back to the single-note polyrhythmic riffs. Later tracks in the sequence, such as "Deception" and "Perfection" have more pronounced clean or ambient parts and more interesting sections, but when I'd originally heard Concealing Fate I think my mindset was too stuck by the first track. Coming in with the lead-in of "Lament" and "Nascent" makes it easier to appreciate the suite in the larger context of the band's own identity.

"Sunrise," the first post-Concealing Fate track, hits like a sledgehammer with a chunky riff for the first half of the song before evolving back to the sprawling ambient tones. "April" has a decent chorus and an interesting bridge, but is otherwise probably well-relegated to the back half of the CD. The disc closes with "Eden," the longest track clocking in at just over nine minutes. It is by far the most sprawling, progressive track, and yet is full of memorable, hooky sections. Even with its long synth pad fadeout, it successfully ends the disc on a high note.

The end result is a solid prog metal offering if you like the djent style and lots of ambient sections. If you're opposed to djent, this isn't necessarily the album to change your mind, but otherwise it's a worthwhile listen.