What would happen if a band is what it says it is? In listening to
Holland's Textures, the answer would be a solid progressive metal band
with considerable hardcore influences. With their latest release Drawing
Circles, it will be running circles around the listener from beginning
to end.
From the beginning, Textures makes one thing clear: boundaries are a
bad thing. While it is true that they show off their hardcore
influences, they rarely stay in that phase for long, rather, they allow the music
to take them wherever it decides. In doing this, a band must be
technical in it sound and Textures does a wonderful job of being technical
while not boring the listener at the same time. As for structure, there
is no song structure, as most of the songs flow into one another and
many of the songs do not suddenly break from one extreme to another.
This is called free flow, something that few bands try and even fewer do
as well as Textures. For all the positives about the album, Drawing
Circles does have its weaknesses, namely the vocals of Eric Kalsbeek. His
effort is there, but sometimes when he does his screaming act, it comes
across as trying too hard to fit within the songs when they are at
their heaviest. When Kalsbeek is doing well, it shows, especially when he
is performing the clean vocals, as they are not bland and actually
compliment the serene parts well. Speaking of serene parts, Textures is
full of them and sometimes, they actually are so serene that it can cause
the listener to nod off. It is not bad, but it brings a new meaning to
the power of music.
Drawing Circles is only Textures' second album, but they are already
becoming rising stars. Touring with bands such as Dillinger Escape Plan,
Meshuggah, and All That Remains, their profile should only get bigger.
With more solid efforts like Drawing Circles, Textures will no doubt be
a band to watch in the near future.
