Release Date: 2004 Record Label: Listenable Records Track list: Band Website: Textures |
Textures - Polars Take yourself back to the 'None'/'Destroy Erase Improve' Meshuggah era and inject some slick catchy thrash in the vein of The Haunted and you have the skeletal form of Textures. From the outset the flesh is applied fairly predictably, albeit augmenting crunchy accessible Swedish rhythms and clean arpeggios with brief emotive migrations, blast reprisals and jazzy fills. "Ostensibly Impregnable" brings fiendish jazzy drumming to the fore, harmonised vocals and additional contrasts between the mellow breakdown and the angry final acceleration. This contrast is repeated in "Transgression" when a calming saxophone melody switches into a meaty battering (a recipe for seduction perhaps?!). Textures up the ante with "The Barrier", the album's brutal peak, complete with high octane staccato and outright shredding. Dissonant guitar alarms throw the listener into bizarre polyrhythmic spasms then stuttering vibrato. Sandwiched between eerie space ambience (similar to M87's "Noctilucent Threnody", only with less gravity and more colour) is the diverse title track. Split essentially into multiple movements which build and shatter, the filthy dirge intro sets the tone for an epic journey. There are some highly innovative technical metal riffs and multiple layering of tracks to Devin Townsend levels. The album's majestic peak occurs after a percussive interlude; a simple 4-note drone floating over a massive synth-backed chugging progression with odd rhythmic spontaneity. Vocals build to neo-Emperor pomposity and warmth before a divine solo marks last rites. Originality of composition and attention to detail are essential in progressive technical metal, but to bring together so many techniques without losing cohesion is outstanding, particularly for a debut album. The impeccable sound is self-produced, with all instruments sparkling with tone and appropriate grit. Textures highly deserve their positive acclaim; I will be grabbing their second album as soon as it is available.
June 24th, 2005 |
