Ruins [LP]

May 2019 saw TesseracT's lead vocalist and songwriter release his debut solo album Castles, his first foray into a more pop rock electronic sound. Ruins sees Daniel Tompkins rework Castles. The lyrical and conceptual side still represents the same ideas as Castles, but with more aggression musically, showcasing a truer and darker tone. With the new version being significantly different to Castles, it was felt that renaming the album and each song was appropriate - aside from the lyrics, it is essentially a completely new album. Ruins was created by producer and friend Eddie Head (Haji's Kitchen) and also features guest artists and additional cocreators. Paul Ortiz (Chimpspanner) rewrote the music and acted as co-producer alongside Tompkins, and Plini plays guitar on opener "Wounded Wings." First single "The Gift" features Trivium frontman and guitarist, Matt Heafy, a friend of Tompkins who is also a prominent streamer on Twitch. When Matt agreed to contribute to "The Gift," Tompkins wrote the parts and Heafy recorded them from his home studio and live on Twitch. "It was an honour to be featured on 'The Gift'. Having been a long-time fan of Tesseract and Dan, this was a wonderful collaboration to take part of. People are going to be floored with this release," Heafy says.