UMUR "Silhouettes" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Dutch metal act Textures. The album was released through Listenable Records in April 2008. It´s the successor to "Drawing Circles" from 2006 and features one lineup change since the predecessor as bassist Dennis Aarts has been replaced by Remko Tielemans.

Stylistically the material on "Silhouettes" continues the technical/progressive metal style of "Drawing Circles (2006)". Hard edged angular riffs and rhythms, often delivered in unconventional time signatures, shouting aggresive "core" tinged vocals, and the occasional clean vocal part, and some melodic and atmospheric moments, which are often enhanced by the use of keyboards. Artists like Meshuggah and Gojira come to mind at various points of the playing time, but Textures ultimately don´t sound like those acts, although there definitely are some similarities.

"Silhouettes" features high level musicianship and a powerful, clear, and detailed sound production, which suits the material perfectly. The material is well written, effective, and catchy (even quite melodic at times). It´s also reasonably varied and "Silhouettes" is overall an album with a good tracklist flow. So upon conclusion "Silhouettes" is a high quality release by Textures. There are a few issues which prevent it from reaching higher levels of excellence, and that is predominantly issues with the vocals. Both the raw shouting vocals and the clean vocals are as such well performed, but none of the vocal styles are particularly unique sounding. The raw vocals sound like a thousand other "core" tinged vocals, and the clean vocals are pretty unremarkable too.

So while the material are both well written and powerful, Textures still haven´t found a sound which make them stand out from the crowd of similar sounding artists (like for example the two above mentioned artists have), and that does have an impact on my overall impression of "Silhouettes". Had the vocals stood out more and enhanced the uniqueness of the music and had the music overall had a more original sound, the sheer quality of the product would have warranted a sure 4 star (80%) rating, but as that unique sound is lacking I feel like I´m stretching, when I a rate the album with a 3.5 star (70%) star rating.

UMUR "Drawing Circles" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Dutch progressive/technical extreme metal act Textures. The album was released through Listenable Records in April 2006.

The music on the album is technical and progressive metal with pre-dominantly aggressive vocals. There are clean vocals too though and they are very strong IMO. The songs are rather complex with multible time signature changes and different sections but the music features a melodic foundation that makes it quite accessible anyway. The riffs are sharp and edgy but there are melodic sections and some great soloing in the music too which is great for the variation. The album is very consistent and all songs are of a high compositional quality.

The musicianship is one of the greatest assets in Textures music. These are highly skilled musicians and lead singer Eric Kalsbeek has a powerful aggressive vocal style but his clean vocals are also quite impressive.

The production is clean and maybe a bit too polished at times, but it´s a suiting sound for the music on this album. "Drawing Circles" is a very recommendable album if you enjoy progressive/technical extreme metal in the vein of Meshuggah and Gojira. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Polars" is the debut full-length studio album by Dutch progressive/technical metal act Textures. The album was released through Listenable Records in 2003.

The music on "Polars" features elements from both the melodic Swedish Göthenburg death/thrash metal style (especially Soilwork comes to mind) and the more technical/experimental hybrid extreme metal style played by acts like Meshuggah, Gojira and Strapping Young Lad. The music features both melodic death/thrash metal riffing and more technical chugging riffs. In addition to those styles there are also a few jazzy Holdsworthian solo parts on the album (Similar to those played by Meshuggah). The vocals are both aggressive, sneering and screaming but you´ll find the occasional clean vocal section too. There are a few weak moments with the clean vocal sections but they are generally enjoyable. The extreme vocals are powerful and intense.

There are some really intense and aggressive songs on the album like the powerful opener "Swan Dive" (I love the blast beat section which reminds me a bit of good old Defleshed) and the even more aggressive "The Barrier". Both "Ostensibly Impregnable" and "Young Man" are also very enjoyable tracks which vary between heavy thrashy riffing and more melodic parts. "Transgression" is also in that style but has a mellow section in the middle with some sax. "Effluent" is an ambient song and it works like an intro to the centerpiece and highlight of the album which is the 18:25 minute long title track. It´s quite the intriguing and powerful song. The song features all the elements that make "Polars" such a great album. Beautiful melodic and atmospheric parts, thrashy riffing and great vocal work. The album ends with the almost 15 minutes long ambient "Heave". Not exactly the most interesting way to end the album, but as long as it closes the album I can skip it when I´m not in the mood.

The musicianship is excellent. Sharp and edgy playing from all involved. I´m especially fond of the drumming style of Stef Broks. He is an exceptionally skilled drummer to my ears.

The production is strong and suits the music perfectly. Very metallic sounding and raw. Don´t expect organic sounds here.

"Polars" is overall a very strong debut release and while there are a couple of compositional elements on the album that are a bit imature, "Polars" is a professional sounding release that is recommended to fans of Meshuggah, Gojira and Strapping Young Lad. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

kluseba Textures is a quite strange band from the Netherlands that mixes melodic death metal in the key of the Goteborg school with bands such as Dark Tranquillity with quite modern thrash metal parts reminding me of Bullet For My Valentine with calm progressive and ambient elements and a few technical parts that recall bands such as Meshuggah. This strange mix sounds very weird at first try and the vocals don't really help and sound like a mixture of In Flames, Bullet For My Valentine and Rise Against. They are quite variable but maybe too diversified and not unique enough.

The good thing about this record is that it is quite unpredictable and surprising and has many chilling interludes and atmospheric changes of style as in "Young Man" or the interlude "Effluent". The band is able to put a high amount of creative ideas in a short amount of time, for example inside the strong opener "Swandive". The band gets to the point and still varies a lot within the running time of five minutes of this song.

It's because of these talents and abilities that I don't get why the band put two overlong tracks in the end of their record. "Polars" is still a great song but it could have been shortened a lot and I would have preferred to listen to three different tracks instead of one good song that goes slightly nowhere and has no truly epic character whatsoever.

The strangest thing is though the final "Heave". It's a purely instrumental ambient track without much variation that sounds like a mixture of krautrock meets space ambient music. Take "Phallus Dei" from Amon Düül II minus the strange vocal noises and add Senmuth's "3923 Seconds On Mars" instead and you get an idea what this song is about. This sounds weird and it is indeed. It's not a bad experiment but it doesn't fit at all with the rest of the album and literally feels quite alien on here. This is what I call experimental at all costs and this also explains the variations in the reviews for this somewhat confusing debut album.

These guys clearly have a lot of talent and many diversified and still coherent songs. But they should focus on their strengths, improve the vocals and dose their experiments in a more logical way. Nevertheless, this album somewhat intrigued me and I'm ready to check their other records out soon. I somehow encourage their courage but they should not go too far. For fans of experimental melodic death metal, this is certainly worth to be checked out and maybe also for open-minded avantgarde and progressive fans. Anybody else should not try this out as this is a very particular effort with some odd elements and many strong points on the other side.

Conor Fynes 'Drawing Circles' - Textures (8/10)

When I was first introduced to the Dutch progressive metal act Textures, I sadly initially dismissed them as being an excellent and higher echelon Meshuggah clone, but still just that; a clone. Granted, Meshuggah has clearly had a large influence on this band as well as the entire budding 'djent' style, but as even a few minutes diving into the band's second record 'Drawing Circles' can go to suggest, there is much more to this band than I may have first given them credit for. Beautifully merging heaviness and lighter beauty, as well as strong songwriting chops and performances all across the board, Textures really sets out to impress with this prog metal opus. 'Drawing Circles' fires on all cylinders and pulls out virtually every trick in the book, and were it even a little more profound as an artistic statement, Textures may very well have boosted themselves up to the level of being masters even only with their second record.

As the opener 'Drive' starts off, 'Drawing Circles' is brought first into the fray of Textures' heavy side, before touching on any lighter elements they have to offer. Had a listener only listened to this track, they may have very well been lead to believe that the band was merely another in a legion of djent cookie cut bands, but and while the second track 'Regenesis' may follow down this route, it changes halfway into something incredibly melodic, driven by a highly expressive clean vocalist. It should also been known that should someone not be looking at the track times, it is very well possible no even to notice that a new 'song' is being played, due to the fact that Textures cleverly meshed every composition here into one running stream of music. With that in mind, there is rarely a rest from some sort of action.

Throughout the rest of this musical journey, it becomes even more clear just how dynamic and varied the sound of Textures can be; going from some moments of great aggression to even a few optimistic and peaceful passages as are heard best in 'Upwards'. The apparent enclosed mini-epic 'Touching The Absolute' shows Textures delving into some incredible jazz fusion. The entire album is bound together by the band's metal sound though, which is not completely original, but manages to get just enough of a unique spin on it to stand alone. The sound here sports some of the best production you are bound to find in metal of its kind, and the convincing direction the band takes here is only helped by their great playing abilities, which really hit hard and never pull their punches. Although evidently masterful at playing cohesively together, the lack of any particular standout moments or tracks does seem to rob the album of the same dedication that a masterpiece warrants, even if the band may have been very close with it here.

Throughout all of this quality, Textures still does not feel as if they met their potential as a playing unit. A surprisingly cohesive suite of modern metal that swerves seamlessly between anthemic melodic and gritty metalcore moments, 'Drawing Circles' comes highly recommended, even from someone that may not have had the greatest first impression of them.