HEVYDEVY FORUMS

Anyone like em? Kinda reminds me of Messhugah with some Devin Townsend-esque riffs. I love it. Their new album Silhouettes even has a song with Devy like vocals.

how incredibly odd that biert hasnt replied with a link to an already existent textures thread

Very late on this my friend. Textures is one of the most loved bands on this forum next to Mr. Townsend.

Loved their first album, but after that they just didn't hold my interest at all. I know how pretentious and generic that sounds, but eh. I think the production of their debut is part of what made me love it, which I suppose is kinda weird. Very organic, unique sound. Sounded wet and heavy, like a ten-ton avalance of soggy leaves. Not like the clicky, dry, gain-drenched stuff most metal bands keep doing nowadays. (imma shut up before I start sounding more jaded )

~Josiah

I think i am the only person on this forum that has never heared a single textures song

Josiah Tobin wrote:Loved their first album, but after that they just didn't hold my interest at all. I know how pretentious and generic that sounds, but eh. I think the production of their debut is part of what made me love it, which I suppose is kinda weird. Very organic, unique sound. Sounded wet and heavy, like a ten-ton avalance of soggy leaves. Not like the clicky, dry, gain-drenched stuff most metal bands keep doing nowadays. (imma shut up before I start sounding more jaded )

~Josiah

Got Polars recently, completing my Textures discography. I have to say, it's rather hit-n-miss stuff, though has some great moments (moar saxophone!). They had to wait for Eric teh singer guy for REALLY awesome awesomeness. He kicked out Mikael Akerfeldt off second place of my private ranking of Methul Singers of Infinite Power(first place is youknowho).

I love take textures, I'd take them over meshuggah any day.

Yup, they're great.
I think their best stuff is still ahead as they define themselves further

Yeah I love them Silhouettes is probably the best album out this year (so far).
Personally, Polars is my least favourite. I don't like the singer as much, and the ambienty bits could have been left out as far as I care. Drawing Circles and Silhouettes are the real masterpieces
Saw them live twice, they're really good. Third time coming up in August

Josiah Tobin wrote:Sounded wet and heavy, like a ten-ton avalance of soggy leaves.

Now I'm going to be thinking of soggy leaves everytime someone mentions Textures!

BlueRaja wrote:

Josiah Tobin wrote:Sounded wet and heavy, like a ten-ton avalance of soggy leaves.

Now I'm going to be thinking of soggy leaves everytime someone mentions Textures!

Well, soggy leaves do have a lot of texture to them

BrunoN: Really? I don't care for either of the vocalists they've had. The screaming is just really generic and doesn't do anything for me (sort of metalcore-esque really)-- the singing's good, but from what I remember it's not used nearly often enough to make their post-Polars stuff any more than forgettable, to me. Even on that first album, the vocals were the weakest link in my opinion. I kind of wish a mathy metal band with a good, solid clean singer would pop up... Lots of melody and no atonal bits. Screamed/yelled vocals seem to be part of the math metal genre for some reason, which is kind of a shame-- most screams (with some huge exceptions, of course) just bore me

~Josiah

I agree, screaming is just boring most of the time. i would love to see more clean vocals in metal

I think screaming can be used to great effect when it's used very sparingly to punctuate a short climax or line that needs a particular intensity. As it stands, though, it seems to be the other way around most of the time-- lots of screaming with the clean singing being used as almost a gimmick on one or two select tracks (whoa, his voice is like... following notes! that's so crazy! ), and that just takes all the impact out of screaming. You need dynamics to keep things interesting and give powerful moments more impact... That's why I love Devin's vocal approach. Songs like Deadhead, for example-- when he really lets loose with his scream, it's all the more spine-tingling because he doesn't just use it for the whole song. Screaming is great when used very, very rarely, but... Too much of a good thing makes it crappy and boring, I guess?

~Josiah

Josiah Tobin wrote:BrunoN: Really? I don't care for either of the vocalists they've had. The screaming is just really generic and doesn't do anything for me (sort of metalcore-esque really)-- the singing's good, but from what I remember it's not used nearly often enough to make their post-Polars stuff any more than forgettable, to me. Even on that first album, the vocals were the weakest link in my opinion. I kind of wish a mathy metal band with a good, solid clean singer would pop up... Lots of melody and no atonal bits. Screamed/yelled vocals seem to be part of the math metal genre for some reason, which is kind of a shame-- most screams (with some huge exceptions, of course) just bore me

~Josiah

"Clean singing being used as almost a gimmick on one or two select tracks"? Well, seems like we listened to different records, because on my copy of "Silhouettes" there are at least three tracks depending mainly on singing and lots of singing/vocalisations in other ones. But yeah, it could depend where your standards are - I like the proportion, every barrage of screams is just buildup for some cool singey parts.

Maybe I'm too used to screamy dudes, they're kinda omnipresent in this metal bussiness

frequency-lsd wrote:I agree, screaming is just boring most of the time. i would love to see more clean vocals in metal

I think clean vocals in metal are only appropriate at certain times. The screamed/growled vocals can be used to show emotion in the music as much as clean vocals can. To me, bands who over do the clean vocals in their music and dont do them well are just using it as a gimmick. I could never see a band like Meshuggah using clean vocals (i know they did on the song Ritual but that was back in 94.) If you want my all out honest opinion on it, I think clean vocals just wouldnt fit in a lot of band's styles. The music doesnt call for it, it calls for something with more power and a more bluntness.