Review Summary: Textures managed to top Drawing Circles, and to get on the same throne as Meshuggah.
Textures is a band that's grown like a mad man over the pas few years. They're no longer just another metal band, but grown into a full blown mathmetal avatar. Starting off with alot of copying on "Polars" from their mathmetal bro's
Meshuggah, and transforming it into a whole new sound on "Drawing Circles". Sure the typical mathmetal elements were there, but they were incorperated with some jazz and prog influences along the way. They even introduced some really good clean vocals, which are the even more dominant on "Silhouettes".
Talking about Silhouettes, it's in one word: AWESOME. They've managed to kick the *** out of "Drawing Circles", with some heavier songs, and more melodic ones too. The clean vocals I mentioned earlier are some of the best I've heared on a metal album, and sometimes the vocals almost sound like Devin Townsend. The mathmetal influences are ofcourse present too, and god, they've never been this good. And with a more solid production, this album is a masterpiece. And now I'll review some notable songs on the album:
First off we have "Old Days Born Anew". This is probably the most
Meshuggah-like song. With a fast-paced mathmetal riff and with fairly standard metaldrums supporting it, this is a nice song to start the album with. The clean vocals on this song are immense and beautifull. Overall a good starter, but not the best song on the album.
"Sun's Architect" is a mathmetal madness with one of the most awesome drumriffs I've ever heared. Together with the masterful-growling from the leadsinger, and again the clean vocals. This song is beautiful.
"Awake" is in my eyes the best song on the album. It starts off with one of the most beautiful clean vocal parts in the history of metal. And I have to mention the lyrics of the song, which are phenomenal. So the songs starts off in progmetal-style, but soon turns into a heavy song with a weird time-structure. With stunning growls to go along with that.
The next song "Lament of Icarus" starts off with a snare drum. And this rythm continues through the whole song. Along with some nice mathmetal riffs and again with the growls, this is a very good song.
Then we have two really good songs "One Eye for a Thousand" and "State of Disobedience" , that you will have to find out for yourself.
Then comes "Storm Warning". And it actually sounds like a storm, or a warning beforehand that a storm is coming. It's an intense song with a weird timetable to it, and the singer growls to this timetable, which is really cool. Then bursts out into beautiful clean vocals, singing from the top of his lungs: "We are the strangers of today". Which in my eyes, is really cool.
"Messengers" and "To Erase a Lifetime" are both awesome songs. "Messengers" being the most "quiet" song on the album, with the least growls. And "To Erase a Lifetime" is a beautiful closer, from an already legendary album.
So that's it, my first review.
