 For
some time now, certain bands seem to have derived great pleasure
paying homage to the sound of the Mighty Mesh, churning out
polyrhythmic staccato chugs out the wazoo. While it's all good
harmless fun, the guys have started to cotton on to the fact that
nobody's ever going to admit that any of them sound as good as Meshuggah in
their prime, no matter how accomplished they get. Fine, Gojira can
easily lay claim to that achievement, but that's sort of the
spectacular exception that proves the rule.
So, the
remaining bands have sort of figured that they need something to give
themselves a distinctive identity. Like in that interview with Jackie
Chan where he goes, “After some time, people say 'Oh you as good as
Bruce Lee!' Not better. So I change my style. Bruce Lee punch and go
'Hwaaoowww!' I punch and go 'Owwww!'.“ I love that line.
Textures
hail from the Netherlands, a place renowned for hedonism, a
perennially cursed national football team and some story about a dike
with the worst glory hole ever. They've been dabbling with a style of
math metal somewhat in the vein of Destroy Erase Improve, with plenty
of one note chugging and rapid rhythm switches with the occasional
spacey melodic break in the middle. The formula has more or less been kept intact for their
third release Silhouettes, barring a few changes.
The
most noticeable new element in the mix is that Erik Kalsbeek's love
for Devin Townsend has suddenly started coming to the forefront. It's
comparitively low-key around the first two songs, but by the time
Awake comes along, you wouldn't be faulted for thinking it was a
bonus track from Terria that got into this album by accident. That
is, until the band seem to remember, “Oh right. Meshuggah!” and
bring the hammer thumping down again. This diversification of sound
seeps into the rest of the songwriting as well. One Eye for a
Thousand starts off with a lengthy proggy/doom-ish riff that also
sounds like it belongs on a Heavy Devy album, but then they start
counting numbers again.
Goes
without saying that the band is tight. I mean, you shouldn't even
contemplate doing stuff that 'sounds like Meshuggah' unless all your
band members communicate on a telepathic level and you have a drummer
with four independent brains (one for each of his limbs) to manage
all the technical tomfoolery that'll inevitably be called for. They
manage to generate a lot of interesting dynamics, especially using
those melodic mechanisms of theirs. If there's any filler, it's in
the math-heavy aggro parts – some of them are great, fierce and
heady, but others feel somewhat aimless and get old a little faster
than I'd like. And I'm also getting irritated by all this growling
over melodic sections in this style of music. I can understand using
it in moderation to get a certain effect, but beyond that, it's a
waste. Saves you the trouble of constructing vocal lines, I suppose,
but when you've already proved you've got a decent voice, the onus is
on you to use it as best as you can. I said onus, so stow the toilet
humour, you wankers.
If
these guys could concentrate a little more on the melodic side
without losing their edge, I can see them becoming a pretty solid
prog metal band. And get the guy to start singing some more. As it
stands, Silhouettes is a pretty decent offering, even if a lot of the
cool parts are littered throughout the album instead of being welded
together.
Year of release: 2008
Label: Listenable
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