Review: Joshua Hobbins
Photography: Nate Rose

A gloomy princess theatre punctuated with pink and blue shadows welcomed Melbourne 5-piece Future Static as they entered the stage to the crooning of Frank Sinatra’s That’s Life.

Front woman Amariah showed off her impressive range right out of the blocks. Opening track Plated Gold had her effortlessly switching from growling to singing, and this was a feature throughout their 9-song set. Amariah and bassist/vocalist Kira complemented each other tastefully in each and every song. Their vocal interplay and harmonies were on point.

Guitarists Jack and Ryan matched Amariah’s high energy presence and complemented each other by trading off slinky riffs, chugs and some tasty harmonic runs. Samples tastefully kept the momentum going throughout the set, maintaining the momentum between songs that sometimes gets lost between banter and guitarists tuning.

Throughout the 40-minute set, drummer Jackson was on point and kept things grooving along smoothly, with some tastefully placed blasts thrown in for good measure. Each band member was championed by Amariah throughout the set, and the crowd were more than happy to share their enthusiasm for each member of the quintet.

Thankfully, the bass became more prominent in the mix and the guitars got crisper as the set reached the 20 minute mark. This is the point the rhythm section really locked in too. Would love to hear more of Kira’s solo vocals in future songs as she shone brightly at the mic as well as with the bass.
With 3 songs left, Waves was introduced as guitarist Ryan’s favourite song, and it was mine too. It got the crowd jumping around the most with and had just the right mix of groove, aggression and pop.

For the final song, Roach Queen, Amariah corralled the crowd with a call and response, and they willingly helped her out, chanting “I was sick and nobody helped me” back and forth. Overall, an impressive display of modern metalcore with sprinkles of prog and pop to keep it interesting, their future promises to be anything but static.

With a huge white tesseract looming over the band, the lights drop and we anticipate what’s to come. The lights mounted on the tesseract created the feeling of being inside the shape, building tension and signalling the upcoming aural and visual onslaught.

Tesseract’s opening track, Natural Disaster, starts us off with an atmospheric gloom, shadowed silhouettes, and a cinematic mix so huge, so super heavy but with so much space for each instrument to be experienced, that I can’t remember a show that looked and sounded this mind-blowingly awesome.

Echoes, Of Mind – Nocturne, and Dystopia then showcased the undeniable chops of drummer Jay Postones, with the massive kick drum holding the groove in place, and the hi-hat placement perfectly syncopating with the guitars and bass.

King was up next, and for me, it was the standout track of the night. Dan Tompkins is vocally hypnotic, I couldn’t look away from his masked silhouette all set. He summoned the crowd to all shine their phone flashlights in unity and sing along, the earlier gloom broken by the brightness. This fell into gloom once again as an immense wall of sound pummeled the crowd, until it fell away into the track’s piano outro.

Not one atom of sonic space was wasted in the next track, War of Being, the title track from their 2023 album. Again, the vocals sit perfectly in the air around the density of the drums, bass and guitars. The intensity builds and builds until it’s brought to an almighty halt. I actually said “Holy shit” out loud as the track finished!
The next two tracks, Smile, and The Arrow, demonstrated the absolute control guitarists Alec “Acle” Kahney and James Monteith and bassist Amos Williams have over their respective instruments. The articulation of every note they play is impeccable, from heavy to light and everything in between.

The highs at the 1-minute mark of next track Legion bring shivers – this whole set was one of the most impressive vocal performances I can remember. The rhythmic interplay in The Grey was close to perfection, and Juno brought an otherworldly feel to proceedings. Tompkins commanded the crowd to get up, and we had no choice but to oblige, bodies flailing everywhere until the final chug. As the dreamscape created by the ambient piano outro continues, the band leaves us.

As we await our fate for the encore, the crowd pleads with the band to come back with the chant, “10 more songs! 10 more songs!”

Tompkins comes back to command us to raise our hands and we all accept as the whole crowd froths to Acceptance – Concealing Fate, Part 1. During the closer, Deception – Concealing Fate, Part 2: , Tompkins again implores the crowd to “Push it back”. Just as quickly as the circle pit was created, it was destroyed, as Tompkins joined the crowd down the front for one last sing along. The heaviest chug of the night was saved to the very end, and what an epic 1-2 and nod to the fans who have been there since Tesseract’s debut album One.

Visually stunning, an aurally unbelievable texture and relentless groove. This show might just be one of the best I have ever witnessed.

Friday, May 3: Metro Theatre, Sydney Lic AA
Saturday, May 4: Croxton Bandroom, Melbourne 18+
Tuesday, May 7: Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide Lic AA
Thursday, May 9: Magnet House, Perth 18+

https://daltours.cc/24tes