Textures

Hailing from Tilburg, Holland, Textures are an inventive melodic metalcore sextet that expands (and somewhat humanizes) the oppressive progressive death metal style of Meshuggah by incorporating dark melodies and keyboard-led atmospheric passages into their off-kilter rhythmic patterns and near-hardcore aggression. Comprised of Eric Kalsbeek (vocals), Jochem Jacobs (guitar/vocals), Bart Hennephof (guitar), Richard Rietdijk (keyboards), Dennis Aarts (bass), and Stef Broks (drums), Textures formed in 2001 and spent most of the next two years honing and rehearsing this unusual sonic hybrid into the tracks making up 2004's self-released Polars debut, which was soon picked up and reissued by Listenable Records. Two years later, Textures returned with a sophomore album named Drawing Circles, which served as the debut for new vocalist Eric Kalsbeek. A new bassist, Remko Tielemans, was introduced on 2008's Silhouettes, which was the first Textures outing to appear on the Dutch charts. More lineup changes were made in 2010, with keyboardist Rietdijk being replaced by Uri Dijk, and lead singer Kalsbeek leaving the fold and new vocalist Daniël de Jongh (ex- Cilice) joining the group. The following year the band released their fourth studio long player, the Nuclear Blast-issued Dualism. In 2016, the band released Phenotype, their first installment in an ambitious, two-part conceptual piece, with plans to drop the second installment, Genotype, in 2017. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia