Luna

When I first found this album, it was an instrumental version, and for a month or two I thought that was the only version of the album. As nice as instrumentals are, I am a vocals person at heart, so I didn't listen to it. After burning myself out on The Amanuensis and In Stasis for the first time, I found it again and decided to give it a shot. Then I heard vocals, and I was confused. Turns out it did have vocals, and I just happened to get the wrong version . So what makes Gnosis stand out, and why do I enjoy it?

Well, I'm glad you were totally asking that question. This album is raw, especially compared to other Djent albums from the time. Yes, P1 and One were both more raw than P2 and Altered State, but Gnosis is another level of raw in it's production and style as a whole. The guitar tone is something that really stands out, and yes I say this like half of the time, but listen to it and you'll see what I mean. It sounds like a machine, and it definitely works for this album. Also, AUDIBLE BASS OH MY GOSH!!! Obligatory "bring back bass". The vocals are also really interesting and uniquely raw. Monuments has always had a vocalist issue, which meant that they have music with like 5 different vocalists out there. This album was done by Matt Rose, and while some people don't like his vocals, I think they really work on this album. The raw mechanic guitar tone combined with his harsh screams is something you have to hear to really understand what I'm describing.

So, what's the issue with this album*? I'll leave that for the day 5.5 post on the "We Are The Foundation" EP, becuase there's a bit of Monuments lore that needs to be gone over. Long story short is that the album was supposed to be done in a different style with different vocalists who were maneuvered/deceived out of Monuments. Either way, this album is still really good, and definitely stands on its own. If you need singles, listen to Admit Defeat, removed, and Regenerate. As always though, if you have the time listen through the whole album. It has quite a unique sound, one that never got returned to, and likely never will.

Alright, I'm feeling quite tired today, so you all are getting the rapid-fire round this time.

What I like: Vocals are great, up like an angel, down like a wounded ox. Guitars are great, as is usually the case with Periphery. It djents, its great, it has its super harsh moments on songs like The Price is Wrong and will have you emotional by the time you've finished Lune.

What could be improved: Where's the bass? I heard that bass play-through of Prayer Position and the bass line was so good, why can I barely hear it in the mix. I'm not asking every band to sound like TesseracT, but at least take notes in terms of mixing an album. Other than the lack of bass, this album has amazing mixing.

What do you all think of this album? It took a bit to grow on me, but I grew to like most of the songs on it. While always liking Lune and The Price is Wrong, the rest of the album got better and better to me the more I listened to it. Especially the Habitual Line-Stepper to Flatline to Absolomb, the whole second half of the album is probably my favorite.

Long ago, the world lived in a relative peace. Guided by nature, the people lived off of the land, paying their respects to the gods that assisted them in their daily lives. Then, the Divine arrived. Its light blessed all, allowing for great prosperity in exchange for the Luminae people's devotion. Declaring the unified Holy Kingdom of Auran, the Divine maintained a more physical presence than the gods of nature that came before it. The Divine could be seen, could be talked to, and could be felt. It was by all means their leader, as well as the arbiter of their salvation, as they saw it.

30 years ago, the Auran Federation broke out into war. Now a nation ruled by a parliament and a president, corruption and exploitation had greatly expanded, especially in the magic-rich province of Iberia. As a result, the people of Iberia began the Iberian Revolution, overthrowing their provincial government. A declaration of independence was made official, and the revolutionaries formed the People's Republic of Iberia. Outraged at this aggression, the federation declared war on the new nation in order to reclaim it. The Iberians by all means should have lost. However, they re-discovered a long dormant power that hadn't been used since before the era of the Divine.

Earth magic is a classification applied to spells that use the caster as the source rather than a god or patron. It requires years of study, years that the Iberian revolutionaries had spent reading through ancient texts that were forbidden by the federation. They had waited to rebel until this magic was mastered, and it was exactly what balanced the scales. Earth magic was not only unaffected by the Divine like elemental magic, but could counter the power the Divine provided to its followers.

The war was still one that was devastating, on both sides. The Divine Church therefore had a decision to make. Keep the war going, or try to restore peace and become a mediator. So, they organized talks between both Iberia and Auran, and they came to a decision. Iberia would maintain all of their land, but not reach past their boundaries. Auran would cede the two provinces bordering Iberia to the church in exchange for an end to the war and the promise of a pacified Iberia. The church then took the provinces it had received and formed the Divine Caliphate, a church turned nation. After five years, the fighting had finally ended, and the war was officially over. A few things happened with this resolution, though. Things that would change the course of Luminae forever.

The Divine had strained itself during the war, giving greater powers and boons to the nation it had created all those years ago. As a result, it seemingly dissipated, fading out of physical existence like the gods of nature had done before it. The Earth magic the Iberians had used in the war also vanished, which was not at all expected. How could something they seemingly controlled just dissapear? The answer is still not known today, though the People's Republic has dedicated many resources to uncovering the reason for its disappearance. Other than these occurrences, the world moved on from the conflict. Auran and Iberia even began to trade with each other, seemingly putting behind them the wounds of conflict. Behind the facade was a bitterness, though. The ruling class of Auran didn't like having to pay full price for resources from the magic-rich lands, while Iberia never forgot the other provinces of people they left behind. As for the Caliphate? It maintained the Divine Church in the two nations, while also having the Caliphate act as a buffer between them. People of one nation could not reach the other without passing through the Caliphate, after all, and the church had managed to put themselves into quite a powerful position.

This brings the world to the present day, a day where people continued to live in a tense peace, a peace that would not continue for long...

It would be really cool if I could find out how to make a map, wouldn't it? Sure, I could use existing maps and put my nations over them, but wouldn't it be so much better if it was more original?

The world itself is something newer to me. I haven't really considered a fantasy setting, even though I love fantasy, though the idea of a conflict and world that goes into its politics is something I've wanted to do for a while. Nothing here is concrete or final, and I'm open to suggestions and feedback, but I needed to make sure I have some sort of groundwork, some sort of world that the story I want to tell can take place in. I also want the characters I'm writing to feel like they live in a world, in a context, and so making sure I don't end up with a Fire Emblem 7 kind of situation is pretty important to me. Let me know what you think! Should names be changed? What should the names of cities be within the countries? What should the Earth/Dark magic be called? I look forward to hearing what you all have to say.

Wow, okay. I didn't know I had a cult until a few months ago, and they actually make really good music. W Cult! I remember making a post about a track on this album, but I think it's time for the whole thing, don't you think?

Where to start. I found this album when I was looking for prog metal albums with female vocalists for the sake of voice training purposes, and what I found was quite the gem. I had never listened to "post-metal" or Cult of Luna before, Mariner was quite the departure from my djent. I really enjoyed it on the first listen through though, and it's now one of my favorite albums. Julie's vocals are great, I was not expecting what she would do on this album but it really makes this album. I actually don't know the band members for this band, but whoever does the deeper screams is also really good, and the two of them sound really well with each other. The instrumentals are also great, and in a way they create a feeling of immersion with patterns and powerful riffs. The riffs will often take their time, letting you take the whole thing in before its gone, and I love that about this album. Everything just works well together! Also, there's no singles today, I guess you could listen to Chevron or Cygnus but this album is best experienced in its entirety.

That's going to be all for today's rec. Let me know if you enjoy/enjoyed this album or not, and feel free to give me some recs as well. I'll be back tomorrow

Hi everyone, I'm back with another album (of course). This one was recommended to me a few days ago by @[email protected], and I've really been enjoying it!

If I had to describe how this album felt the first time I listened to it, I would say nostalgia. It really tickles my nu metal and 2000s alternative rock senses, in a good way. The guitar tone is really good, I've always been a fan of these kinds of tones. In addition to guitars, the vocals sound amazing. Not only do they get angelic (I love angelic vocals), but the vocalist does a lot of different things with their voice both pre-production and post-production. It's also proggy, of course, and that's what really makes this album for me. Yeah, nu metal and alternative rock could both be good, but add prog and it ascends.

This album has its heavy/harsh moments, its calm and melodic moments, and its proggy moments. I really enjoyed it, and hopefully you will too. For individual tracks on this album, check out Themata (this album in a nutshell), Cote (for 2000s nostalgia), Sewn and Silent (clean melodies), and Scarabs (for heavy proggy guitar goodness).

That's going to be all, hope you enjoy, and thanks again for the rec vovchik_ilich!

P.S. If you don't end up liking this album, just listen to "Omitted For Clarity" on loop

25 years ago, the Ibérnese people began a revolution, toppling their provincial government. Following this initial conflict, they declared the People's Republic of Ibérna and began to defend their newfound gains from the remaining provinces within the Auran Federation. Luna witnessed this all, not only partaking in the revolution but leading it. Her face, as unique as it was among the people of Lumine, became a symbol of hope and freedom from the boots of the oppressors.

In battle itself, she was a legend. From this point onward, the Auran people knew her as the Pale Demon, her unmatched skills in dark magic feared by all who opposed her. She was a force to be reckoned with, and once that certainly played a role in the successful revolution. Then she lost her magic.

5 years after the revolution revolution started, and the Divine's armistice was signed, dark magic vanished. It could no longer be produced, nor could it be felt. Luna had lost everything that had made her a competent fighting force, her studies now rendered useless. She still had her mind, though, and as such she saw it fit to enter a position within the new nation's government. As soon as she brought it up, the people didn't take long to place her as the figurehead of the new nation. Just like that her life was taken from one battlefield to another. She was ready to serve the nation she helped build though, and she did, and has done so for 20 years...

After receiving news of invasion plans from a Caliphate bishop, Luna entrusted her to Elio's group, who were to escort her to the archbishop of the Divine Caliphate. Things went on as expected after that, with the nation preparing to defend itself from the potential invasion. They would not lose what they spent so much to gain. Then, she felt it. She could feel the magic again, and upon performing a spell, magic once again heeded her command. Now combat-ready, she left the politics behind, following the returned magic to its apparent source...

I actually quite enjoy writing these, but I really need to finish the initial world-building post. Without it, these characters only exist in a vacuum, with events being referenced and the magic system not fully being understood. It's not the worst scenario, though, as writing out stories for the characters make it so that they exist in a context of all in which they live and what came before them. The post is almost ready though, there will be a max of 1 more character before I post it, that's a promise.

It's quite interesting how Luna became the leader of Ibérna. I had a background story for another character, a village girl who studies dark magic, and I was originally going to use this design for her. However, I hadn't come up with a leader for Iberia yet, I had kind of just automatically assumed it would be some generic politician. That didn't feel right for a nation of its kind, so I gave it Luna's face. Considering dark magic is what got the nation created, it makes sense that someone who can use dark magic played some sort of role in the revolution. Pieces started falling into place, and I ended up with this! Some names have been changed around compared to the initial setup, so I might have to redo my bishop post (I'm finding a new name for her, someone else that made a lot more sense is getting her name).

I hope you enjoyed reading this, feel free to ask questions or provide world-building/writing tips!

I think I'm going to recommend an album each day as I begin to upload music to TankieTube. Considering I've never made a post on One, I thought it would be best to post this on day one of this posting spree.

One has to be one of my favorite albums. It takes a sort-of ambient tone, which then is interjected with harsh guitars and vocals. The guitars do Djent, and the riffs are pretty satisfying. One thing that was hinted at in One was bass. It's the most quiet bass in any TesseracT album, and yet it can still be heard, something that was more common at the time (Monument's Gnosis, for example). However, while most bands decided to lower the volume of the bass, and flatten the tone, TesseracT leaned into it, with a rich and audible bass in all of their future albums.

Dan Tompkins is amazing on this album. His voice can go from a angelic, but sad-sounding cleans to the harsh pitched screams of an inner conflict. I once saw someone come up with a comparison between Dan Tompkins and Ashe O'Hara (Altered State) that really sums it up well. While the way Ashe sings demonstrates that same melancholy emotion followed by understanding, Dan takes that and focuses more on the moments of struggle. For this in action listen to both Ashe and Dan's versions of Perfection (Dan's is on this album). He's very flexible and versatile on this album, and although he's a bit low in the mix sometimes, it's not so jarring that it's felt for the whole album. The only bad thing about this album for Dan as an individual, was that he wrecked his voice. He was never quite able to pull of the same kind of vocal performance until War of Being, meaning that the harsh vocals that felt pretty iconic were used sparingly in both Polaris and Sonder (Ashe didn't scream, so Altered State has none). This is not a jab at any of these albums, and I feel like the harsh vocals they did use in songs like Messenger (Polaris) and King (Sonder) worked really well.

I don't seem to be talking about one a lot in this rec, and it's because it feels like such a unique album. If you've heard TesseracT at all, many of the sounds they built upon in future work started with this album. This album stands on its own though, and it's still probably my second favorite TesseracT album. Concealing Fate (All 6 parts) is amazing, and tracks like Lament, Nascent, and Eden are just as amazing (I've just listed most of the album).

So, before I go, let me provide some single songs you might enjoy. The best part about One is that, like Altered State, you can pick anything. Love harsh vocals? Nascent and Sunrise. Beautiful cleans? Deception and Perfection. A bit of everything? Lament or Eden. Like all of these? JUST LISTEN TO THE FULL ALBUM AT THIS POINT! That's all from me, if you read this I appreciate it, and enjoy the album.

A tip for streaming from TankieTube: The website can actually be connected to through Newpipe's PeerTube option, so you can play the album in the background like you would on a streaming service!

Altered State 2, on TankieTube too!

Yeah, so my review still holds up, this album is still probably one of my favorites, its great to get back into, and I still think it is a masterpiece. Is there anything more to be said that I didn't say? I love this album, and now it's in a location where people can listen to it, in its entirety, without worrying about YouTube BS or streaming service tracking or anything else. If you didn't see the original post, or don't remember what was said, give it a read! Its especially good if you're on the fence about listening to this album.

Reading it again, I was in a different place at the time. I had just started my transition, and this album was on repeat for me. It played when I buzzed my legs for the first time (no, I didn't shave at first) and I still sing the songs, or hear them in my head, whenever I shave anything. I used the shaving as an example, but this album really is linked to the gender euphoria I felt when I first did those things, and if there was any album that would be my "transition album", this would have to be it.

I'll probably always be a bit sad that Ashe O'Hara left TesseracT, and the band never really returned to an album like Altered State. I do think it was overall not a bad thing, because I've really grown to appreciate Polaris, Sonder, and War of Being, but none of them will ever be as special to me as Altered State still is. I can really appreciate Dan Tompkins though, after really getting into Polaris and War of Being I can hear just how amazing his vocals are as well, and I've grown to love his newer stuff too (I used to only like One).

That's all from me this time, and no, I do not think there will be a third Altered State post. Maybe I'll do an in-depth post on Polaris or One at some point.

Yeah yeah yeah, I know I'm eating my words from a bit ago, again. I said that I could not really get into albums like Periphery's P5 and TesseracT's War of Being. I was once again wrong, at least about one of them. Sorry P5, you'll have to wait until another time, where I may or may not like you. Anyway, War of Being post before an Altered State post, what's wrong with me?

Well, I already did an Altered State post, although I might do another when I upload it to TankieTube, because it is just that good and absolutely deserves two posts. But we're not here to talk about Altered State. I left War of Being playing, and I made sure to sit through Echoes, which eventually did grow on me, but it was holding me back. The Grey, Legion, and War of Being are all amazing songs, and the rest of the album definitely holds itself up pretty well too. While it does flow well, I do feel like this is more of an album made of "heavy hitters" rather than the one really amazing album flow that Altered State has. Stop comparing it to Altered State!

Going into this, I thought the production was pretty flat, and that's because it might be, but it also might not be? I'm kind of struggling to hear it, but there are moments that definitely could have been mixed better, and there are moments that live up to TesseracT generally having good mixing. You have to realize, bad TesseracT mixing is like Monuments mixing on a good day, so it's not the end of the world. There are so many places where the bass rips and is just so present, I love that this band does this with their bass instead of just making it low in the mix or pretty much just muting it (I'm still salty about AJFA, even though I don't listen to Metallica too much anymore). I also need to talk about the vocals, because Danithan Tompkins went over 9000 with this album. He's always been a great vocalist, but this album marked a bit of a style shift and a return to One's harshness. One sounded great, but I believe it may have not been good for his voice. He manages to bring that energy and more to War of Being, hopefully in a healthy way this time. Now to talk about riffs.

War of Being feels like its own thing, but I can hear bits and pieces of other albums at times. Sometimes, I hear One. Others Altered State. Others, I can hear Altered State 2 (Polaris). I even hear a bit of Sonder. Its nice to see that they didn't just mush the sounds together though, you can hear it for a moment if you catch it, and then its back to being War of Being. Some of these riffs though, and the guitar tone, almost remind me of a modern djentified and progiffied version of Trivium's Shogun. The Grey has a riff like this, and so does War of Being. If you've listened to Trivium's Shogun, you'll know what I mean when you hear it. In fact, IF YOU WANT SPECIFIC SONGS TO LISTEN TO, PLAY THE GREY and WAR OF BEING. Now that the people in the back have heard me, I wanted to say that I absolutely love the riffs, and I want more of this.

Anyway, I've gone on long enough. Enjoy War of Being, and don't worry, I'll post Altered State tomorrow.

Now, I have always loved GNOME, but I spent the last few months in KDE. That was until I switched back to GNOME a couple of weeks ago. I know it's disliked by a lot of people, but some of these changes, like accent colors and the libadwita file save/open interface, really solidify this desktop my favorite.

I was talking about music the other week in the trans mega, and how I couldn't really get into the newer TesseracT stuff. So that was a lie...

If you want specific songs, I have four words for you: Tourniquet and Seven Names

(although if you're looking for higher-energy, do Dystopia and Messenger)

I've really been enjoying Spiritbox lately, so I thought I would share alert you all to this EP's presence.

Additionally, I have ended my friendship with HexReplyBot. TankieTube is my new friend, thanks TankieTanuki!