KARNIVOOL, Tesseract @Institute, Birmingham 20/11/13

Things have changed in the Tesseract camp since we last saw them. Not only have they got rid of singer number four Eliot Coleman (himself a replacement for Daniel Tompkins), the newly fronted by Ashe O’Hara band has released a new record called “Altered State.” The album sees them move even further away from the Djent scene, which seemed to be almost entirely invented by Metal Hammer anyway, and into something altogether more interesting and challenging. 

So it is that the first three songs they play tonight are from the “…State” album, and they sound just as good live as they do on record. In our opinion the band sound much better with a singer that is, well, singing, and the riffs sound even more monstrous than before. That is not to say they forget their roots totally – and indeed neither should they, as previous record “One” was excellent too – and there is plenty of what O’Hara terms “old Tesseract” to keep the huge crowd entertained. The frontman is apparently struggling with a bad throat, although you wouldn’t know it, as he navigates his way through a superb 40 minutes. With a (hopefully) settled line up and seemingly limitless ability to write interesting songs, you really can expect big things from Tesseract. 

Back in 2010 we took our places at Sonisphere on the day Iron Maiden played. The opening act was some Aussies who we had never heard of, called Karnivool. They were really very good indeed. 

Now, here we are seeing them for the first time since then. In 2013 they have a new album “Asymmtery” to plug. They begin with a couple of songs from it, “The Last Few” and “A. M War” and over the course of the next hour and three quarters, they exemplify what follows, expertly played, brilliant and a just little bit more exciting than you might have expected. 

And yet, we shouldn’t have been surprised. Beardy, unassuming blokes they might be, but that doesn’t quite tell the story. You see, Karnivool are genuine big stars in their homeland – “Asymmtery” was number one down under – thus when you are used to playing arenas, you can knock out a gig to 500 people in Birmingham in your sleep. 

Not that Karnivool give the impression that they are phoning it in, if anything, they seem humbled that so many people have turned up, which rather fits in with their image. Singer Ian Kenny is absolutely the least rock star looking rock star you have seen, and happily there seems to be a convivial atmosphere between the bands, with Tesseract Drummer Jay Postones joining in stage right on “Sky Machine.”

In fact, the only things that set Karnivool out as a massive band are their massive songs. Huge guitar lines and great big choruses abound – not least of which is “Simple Boy,” which is arguably the pick, although really, the whole set is of the highest order. 

The band returns – somewhat sheepishly – for an encore and “New Day” rounds things off in suitably massive style. “Thanks Birmingham,” says Kenny. “It’s been brilliant tonight.” To be fair, he’s not wrong. We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.