THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Tag: textures

TEXTURES – Polars

February 2, 2022 /

This is the 10th anniversary reissue of the band’s debut effort from 2004, and the first thing you notice compared to later releases is how goddam heavy they were.

Opening track, Swandive, is Pantera on acid. The vocals, riff, and groove are brutal – epic stuff! Ostensibly Impregnable is more like their future selves in places, with the beautiful soundscape melodies separating the brutality. Young Man is off at breakneck speed as the aural assault continues, and yet the beauty is just below the surface. Lots of heavy palm muted aggression starts Transgression (possibly the most brutal track yet), with a really cool saxophone interlude. Another Pantera groove greets us in The Barrier, and this track is so fast it ends before it starts. The weird soundscape of Effluent leads into the album’s showpiece and title track, Polars. Fat monster riffage mixed with melody and great soundscapes make this the best on the album.

This is territory the band would make their own on Dualism, which is and absolute beast of a record. Unfortunately the band are no more as they have called it a day.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

TEXTURES – Phenotype

September 24, 2021 /

Hailing from the flatlands of The Netherlands, this was the band’s fifth and final release and was the follow up to the successful and super awesome, Duality. I am a huge fan of this band and was lucky enough to see them Live once. They are the purveyors of the finest technical metal with huge amounts of D-tuned riffage that hits the perfect spot for me. Since Daniel de Jong joined the band in 2010, they evolved in huge strides and I was super disappointed that they called it a day.

If first track, Oceans Collide, doesn’t shake your tree then their brand of awesome is not for you. After the brutal onslaught of the first track, the beauty of the New Horizons intro is just sublime, before we hit warp 10 and the main riff and groove kicks in. Brutally heavy and epic! A huge sounding choppy riff and groove announce the arrival of Shaping A Single Grain Of Sand. The ending of this song is just freaking insane!!! I love the dark and shade of the vocals that change in a blink of an eye. Don’t be fooled by the aggression, as there is so much melody on this record. Side 1 closes out with Illuminate The Trail, and the intensity continues – this is the band at their heaviest.

Some epic drumming is the intro to Side 2 instrumental opener, Meander. The supremely heavy returns with Erosion, and I love the middle section that leads into maximum riffage to the outro. The Fourth Prime has an evil riff and groove with an odd time signature that screws with your brain at the beginning. There is a whole albums worth of material and riffs in this one song alone. Absolute monster track! The second instrumental piece, Zman, follows and is a keyboard atmospheric chill, before album closer, Timeless, assaults your senses again with a choppy riff and beat that ends in epic style.

It took me a while to fully appreciate this album as I thought previous effort Duality was the beans. Upon reflection I think Duality was more immediately accessible, whereas Phenotype is a lot more complex and it took time to sink in. Now I love it wholeheartedly, and I am totally bummed out that they have called it a day.

10/10 from The Grooveman.

TEXTURES – Dualism

January 8, 2021 /

Killer 2012 release from these Dutch Prog groove metallers. The super sad news is that they are no longer together. They split up after the release of the follow up album to this due to apathy and knocking on the door for far too long and getting nowhere.

I managed to catch them live once in support of this album with Periphery and The Contortionist. I know killer line up or what? If I were to describe Textures to anyone I would say listen to the first track Arms of The Sea as this has everything that you would associate with the band. Namely awesome clean and growl vocal, off time drum rhythm grooves, drop D and beyond guitars, and a crushing ending.

Things carry on nicely through Black Horse Stampede and beautiful Reaching Home until we reach the epic Sanguine Draws the Oath. Another great off time groove and riff from Jochem Jacobs and Bart Hennephofs dual guitars, some killer drumming courtesy of Stef Brooks and epic vocal from Daniel De Jong. Absolute killer stuff. The riffs go really low in full djentorama!! Buy this album for this track alone!! Side 1 closes out with the epic Consonant Hemispheres.

Over to Side 2 and the instrumental Burning the Midnight Oil gets things going nicely, and then into the mighty Singularity again with weird off time groves and killer drums. Minor Earth Major Skies, Stoic Resignation, and Foreclosure fly by and we get all too quickly to the close out track Sketches From A Motionless Statue, almost Dream Theateresque in its beginning.

It’s sad to say that the music business is littered with bands like Textures who burn brightly for a short period and then they are gone. I know it wasn’t for a lack of trying as they funded almost everything themselves. If I were to recommend one Textures album to purchase for your collection then it would be this monster.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

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