Year : 2016
Style : Progressive Metal , Metalcore
Country : Netherlands
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans + Video
Size : 176 mb
Bio:
In 2003, the year of the launch of TEXTURES’ debut album Polars, the first reactions start to stream in: “This is the best metal album that’s ever come out of the Netherlands” according to the Dutch music magazine Oor. The standard is set. TEXTURES, once just a promising up-and-coming band from the South of the Netherlands, has now emerged, 3 albums later, as an established name in the worldwide metal scene.The band’s fourth album Dualism -- on the band’s new home Nuclear Blast -- is groovier, catchier, and the production even grander than its 2008 predecessor Silhouettes. The band’s trademark mix of expertly crafted brutality, melody, freaky, innovative rhythms and catchy vocals is still intact, with Bart Hennephof and Jochem Jacobs’s expertly crafted sonic… um… textures and the unruly heavy-hitting of drummer Stef Broks creating the perfect metal cocktail. The climaxes of the songs on Dualism have been elevated to a higher level, partially due to the contribution of their new keyboard player, Uri Dijk and new frontman Daniel de Jongh (ex-Cilice) who, as far as his sound goes, is every bit the talent as his predecessor Eric Kalsbeek.Once again, the band took total control of every facet of the album. Everything was recorded at Split Second Sound, the new Amsterdam-based studio belonging to Jacobs, who produced the album. The band also handled all their own artwork and merchandising, which was designed by bassist Remko Tielemans.The last album, Silhouettes, received worldwide acclaim from the international press. Everybody from Europe to the U.S. to India could sing along to the song “Awake,” which received strong support from online metal communities and got prime time airplay on Radio 3 fm (NL), Radio 1 (UK) and Triple J (AU). The video clip got airplay on MTV in Europe and Russia, and VH1 in India. In the Netherlands TEXTURES reached the Album Top 100 for the very first time. The band played at Graspop in Belgium, the Great Escape in the UK, Tuska in Finland, Hellfest in France and Lowlands in their home country the Netherlands and also toured with Arch Enemy and All That Remains, among others.In 2009 the band flew to Bangalore to play India for the first time -- where they’d just been featured on the cover of India’s most prestigious rock magazine The Rock Street Journal – and delivered an explosive headline performance for over 5,000 fans. Exactly a year later they return for another festival, dazzling the University of New Delhi where the band was welcomed by throngs of thousands once again.With two new band members, a new record label and a new album TEXTURES will be hitting the road once again, touring all over the world in support of the album and going places where they’ve never been before, both literally and metaphorically.
Album:
Dutch metalcore band, Textures, has been delivering complex and experimental music since 2001. Melding progressive, melodic, and metalcore, Textures is at last spewing forth Phenotype, their fifth album and part one of their musical diptych, with the second half, Genotype, releasing in 2017.Phenotype detonates into life with a heavy roar that opens the massive collision of sounds that make up “Oceans Collide”. Everything that one would want from Textures is featured within this initial showcase of aggression and power. It explodes through a backdrop of driving sounds that provide – true to their name – textures for Daniel’s vocals to ooze across, both harsh and clean. “Oceans Collide” provides multiple key changes, along with waves of tempo changes that ebb and flow with euphoric synths, cascading through the bombastic sounds of this song.“New Horizons” unfolds in a softer, more delicate, fashion that continues to build into an unleashing of a deep and dark throaty rampage. Opposite and parallel versions of the original theme walk hand in hand, back and forth, bringing forward mesmerizing kickassery that builds and builds, feeding into both clean and harsh, metal and rock, guilty pleasures without losing passion or vigor.Industrial in nature, bouncy guitar crunches and hellaciously voracious screaming vocals permeate “Shaping of a Single Grain of Sand”. The initial intensity bleeds into a clean vocal that gives us a brief glimpse of hope from within the musical storm. Dripping with metal, this is the harshest song Phenotype offers; Daniel is brutal, Stef is a beast behind the kit, and Joe, Bart, and Remko slice through each and every note, impaling listeners with the forces emanated from their respective weapons.With an ethereal intro torn into by Daniel’s aggressive vocal onslaught, “Illuminate The Train” swirls and snarls straight into clean singing that dances between tempos and styles, allowing the definitive multi-texture nature of this band reign. We move into a heavenly descent into luscious abandon, guided by whispers and drums, laced by guitars, further falling into full musical decadence.Stef poured more than his soul into this drum solo of “Meander”. It is literally Stef transformed into pure beat and rhythm, metamorphosed as he cascades across the soundscape. You can feel his presence through your ears and perceive his touch in the chasm between the synapses firing in your mind and the flowing music that he has become.Charging and foreboding, Daniel’s vocal onslaught is aggressive, taking “Erosion” into a place where crunchy rhythms rest against a mournful chant. We slide into a forceful and hopeful chorus that dives right back into a dangerous and soaring guitar solo. It ends, pouring itself into the last drop of syrupy guitar strumming.“The Fourth Prime” opens first into a classic 80’s ballad-esque style that quickly is whisked away and replaced by a thrashy, groove-laden harsh vocal with perilous guitar intricacy. With a quilted patchwork of texture, “Prime” stays true to metal, with ascorbic screams and powerful bellows that are followed by clean vocals, swapping tempos, and styles deftly. The guitar solo soars into a heartbeat rhythm that lilts into a hypnotic position of musical depth. As the solo, free from vocal re-direction, we flow through the song straight into the original pit of screams and resolve with clean refrains.“ZMan” is Uri, deliciously synthing and giving us a gift of disorienting beauty, showing us what magic can be unleashed by his hands across the keys. Uri caresses our senses as his fingers enable a sweet and twinkling melody that ultimate the bursts into “Timeless” the album closer. “Timeless” transcends from the churning rhythm and clean vocals and chorus, departing from excessive harsh vocals. Beautiful and softer in comparison to the rest of Phenotype offerings, the nature of this song is as true as its name. The twinkling guitar strumming paired with the keyboard grant otherworldly sensations from musical and emotional vantage-points, bringing Phenotype to a close, satiating the listener on many levels.Short, gorgeous in the right places, metal in others, Phenotype is an album that coalesces your love for all rock genres into one collection of audial art. There are many wins on Phenotype. There are also many things that feel safe. Few risks were taken with Phenotype, and in turn, few moments of “holy shit” ever occurred. Regardless of whether or not Textures decided to not make waves, five years after Dualism, Phenotype is a solid album that is a definite must listen to.
Line Up:
Stef Broks Drums (2001-present) - See also: ex-Empty, ex-Exivious, ex-Kong (live)
Bart "Bastærd" Hennephof Guitars (2001-present) - See also: Brutus
Remko Tielemans Bass (2007-present) - See also: ex-Isle of Man, ex-Postmortem Fabulae, ex-37 Stabwoundz
Uri Dijk Keyboards (2010-present) - See also: HDK, Karmaflow, ex-Ethereal, The Ulex, ex-Mortar
Daniel de Jongh Vocals (2010-present) - See also: Karmaflow, ex-Ethereal (live), ex-CiLiCe
Joe Tal Guitars (2013-present) - See also: Illucinoma
Tracklist:
01. Oceans Collide
02. New Horizons
03. Shaping A Single Grain Of Sand
04. Illuminate The Trail
05. Meander
06. Erosion
07. The Fourth Prime
08. Zman
09. Timeless
+ Video "Shaping A Single Grain Of Sand" (Official Video)
Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/
