Textures - Silhouettes

by Simon T Diplock

Progressive metal that makes a grab for even Meshuggah's crown

"The tracks here aren’t even songs really. Step back and you see that they're giant layers of noise, they're titanic transitions from calm, often blissful serenity to aggressive, raw volume, and they're entire spheres of atmospheres."

If Textures were American they’d be huge. Now that may have been said about a multitude of acts across a myriad of genres before but seriously, if you could have slapped a Trustkill Records badge and Californian accents on the Dutch quintet’s last album, the thing would have shifted as many units as any hip’n’cool metal act in ‘06. It didn’t of course, but two years later and the Tilburg troupe probably couldn’t give a crap. Because now they have ‘Silhouettes’.

For a start the depth and breadth of opener ‘Old Days Born Anew’ would have most of last year’s hot acts scratching their heads for days. Sounding like Faith No More taking on metalcore and turning it inside out, the track is a labyrinthine effort but one with an insistent, engrossing and strong heart. And it sums up the whole record too- the primal power at its core matching anything laid to tape by kindred spirits like Twin Zero, The Ocean, or The Dillinger Escape Plan. And fully-unleashed, when the band are utterly on point, it has the power to inspire even Meshuggah or Tool-esque levels of awe, influence and respect.

For the many hulking riffs though, it’s fair to say there’s nothing easy here. There’s no verse-chorus-verse. These things aren’t even songs really. Which, sure, when you’re dealing with something like the seven-minute shifting monolith of ‘To End A Lifetime’, can be difficult. But when you step back and see that these things are giant layers of noise, titanic transitions from calm, often blissful serenity to aggressive, raw volume, and see entire spheres of atmospheres. Then, it’s clear that these things actually are Textures.

‘Silhouettes’ isn’t just an improvement on everything this band has done before then, the record by which to henceforth measure them by. This is a record capable of transcending genres, labels, boundaries and borders. Now if only enough people would give it that chance.

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