First of all, I can really appreciate a good scream or death metal grunt.

Secondly, I don't think that Silhouettes is filled with generic metalcore screams. Drawing Circles may have a lot of them, but on the new record, the singer has really found his place within the band. Sure the screams are there, and in fact most of the vocals are screaming. But in many places, Eric shows that he's a really, really good singer. Check out the songs Awake and Messengers, for example. They're great and mostly based around the singer.

Those 2 songs have some amazing clean vocals on them. I thought a few songs on Drawing Circles had some incredible clean vocals too!

And by the way, my scream/growl comment was definitely not directed at Textures, I think they do vocals just fine!

Clean vocals being a gimmick? Wow, I can't comprehend that one. Well, I guess I can see what you mean, when a vocalist known for 100% screaming maybe uses it on one or two tracks, but even then... I can't see *singing* as being gimmicky, that doesn't make any sense to me (just personally, I don't want to sound like a pompous ass or meshuggah fan or something ). There's a balance to be struck, one that varies from person to person, I suppose... For me, screams should be used sparingly to be the most effective, but then again that doesn't mean I don't thoroughly enjoy some bands that use mostly harsh vocals. I just much prefer when it's mixed up with more focus on singing.

BrunoN: Sorry, I should've mentioned I was referring to Polars and Drawing Circles-- I haven't yet heard Silhouettes. Maybe I should check it out though, if it's got more variety... I heard some songs on their myspace from the album that didn't do anything for me at all, but perhaps I should give the album a solid listen.

~Josiah

BrunoN: Sorry, I should've mentioned I was referring to Polars and Drawing Circles-- I haven't yet heard Silhouettes. Maybe I should check it out though, if it's got more variety... I heard some songs on their myspace from the album that didn't do anything for me at all, but perhaps I should give the album a solid listen.

Ok, so on singy side you have "Illumination", "Upwards" and "Touching the absolute" on Drawing Circles (ok, last one has little bit of screaming - but it's also a bit jazzy and totally roxing my s0xorz) and some melodic bits in other songs. Though if you didn't like Drawing Cirles, you won't like Silhouettes I guess, these records have similiar qualities IMO.

Clean vocals being a gimmick? Wow, I can't comprehend that one. Well, I guess I can see what you mean, when a vocalist known for 100% screaming maybe uses it on one or two tracks, but even then... I can't see *singing* as being gimmicky, that doesn't make any sense to me (just personally, I don't want to sound like a pompous ass or meshuggah fan or something ). There's a balance to be struck, one that varies from person to person, I suppose... For me, screams should be used sparingly to be the most effective, but then again that doesn't mean I don't thoroughly enjoy some bands that use mostly harsh vocals. I just much prefer when it's mixed up with more focus on singing.

BrunoN: Sorry, I should've mentioned I was referring to Polars and Drawing Circles-- I haven't yet heard Silhouettes. Maybe I should check it out though, if it's got more variety... I heard some songs on their myspace from the album that didn't do anything for me at all, but perhaps I should give the album a solid listen.

~Josiah

Clean vocals can absolutely be a gimmick. I hate to use it as an example but take Avenged Sevenfold. I am not a fan of theirs, but I have friends who love them. They released one or two albums with almost exclusively screamed/growled vocals. They werent mainstream at all but they had a decent fan base. They release one album a few years ago with all clean singing on it, and boom. Radio play, MTV suddenly loves them. It can totally be used as a gimmick to get more attention from the mainstream media. Mainstream music still hasnt embraced harsh vocals.

Honestly, I think if it doesnt fit with the music, if it hinders the flow of the song, if it just sounds off...dont use clean vocals. Just my opinion.

I'm not a huge fan of growling vox only because it really does feel tacked on alot of times. There are very few singers that can naturally demon/growl.Most of the time what I hear is this really great metal tune getting going then the cookie monster comes up and starts counting peanut butter sandwitches.I guess I feel like it's a necessary evil (no pun intended)of this generation of metal but its not all bad. Devy has such a great voice that is perfect for the versitility that metal can express.
I don't like lables like 'clean' and 'dirty' vocals. 'Gang' vocals ect. It cliches' the whole genre. There's so much more breadth to metal.
I love Dave Brockie's voice(GWAR) .He doe's so many interesting things with his vocal range from crooning to the most badass natural growl . He also has some almost alien vox methods that sound so freaky. When they're doing more punk stuff, he takes on a vox that sounds like a 700 lb. gorrilla that suddenly learned to sing/scream.Most metal vocalists just don't stretch the potential of this style of music IMO.They just basically have two gears 'Clean' and 'Dirty'.

Hey, first time poster here.

Big fan of both Dev and Meshuggah, and wondering if you guys could recommend an album by Textures to begin with? I downloaded the song "Old Days Born Anew" for free from last.fm, but the generic screaming kinda ruined it for me.

Hey, first time poster here.

Big fan of both Dev and Meshuggah, and wondering if you guys could recommend an album by Textures to begin with? I downloaded the song "Old Days Born Anew" for free from last.fm, but the generic screaming kinda ruined it for me.

And as you can read here, there are 3 albums. The first one, Polars has a different singer, but he doesn't sing clean (not much at least) and personally I don't like him as much as the new one. The last two albums, Drawing Circles and Silhouettes are very similar I guess. Both have the same singer, who also does quite some clean vocals. For starters, I'd give Silhouettes a spin. The production is very Devin Townsend-ish and the vocals are too in some parts. Especially check out the song Awake, and from Storm Warning (also free on Last.fm I think) onto the end the album is simply epic.

If you really can't stand the vocals (personally I think any vocals are better than Meshuggah's though, just me), be sure to still give Awake and Messengers a try on Silhouettes. On Drawing Cirles, check out Upwards, I love how it builds up.

Enjoy

Listening through Silhouettes and it seems I've been too quick to judge, the screams are still a bit annoying but doesn't matter as the rest is awesome. Drawing Circles is awesome too, Touching the Absolute is epic.

Aye, Touching the Absolute has that nifty little guitar solo with probably the coolest arpeggio i've ever heard starting it off!

Also, pay attention to how To Erase A Lifetime builds up to a total mayhem of chaotic drumming madness Stef (the drummer) has at least 5 arms and 3 feet!

Got the DVD concert thing coming!
Ya'll got me into 'em

Wait... what? Textures have a concert DVD?

Also, pay attention to how To Erase A Lifetime builds up to a total mayhem of chaotic drumming madness Stef (the drummer) has at least 5 arms and 3 feet!

This I noticed the first time I listened to it!

Also, pay attention to how To Erase A Lifetime builds up to a total mayhem of chaotic drumming madness Stef (the drummer) has at least 5 arms and 3 feet!

That dude has really unique grooves.

BTW, never heard about Textures DVD, but WANT.