DRAWING CIRCLES

"Drawing Circles" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Dutch progressive/technical extreme metal act Textures. The album was released through Listenable Records in April 2006.

The music on the album is technical and progressive metal with pre-dominantly aggressive vocals. There are clean vocals too though and they are very strong IMO. The songs are rather complex with multible time signature changes and different sections but the music features a melodic foundation that makes it quite accessible anyway. The riffs are sharp and edgy but there are melodic sections and some great soloing in the music too which is great for the variation. The album is very consistent and all songs are of a high compositional quality.

The musicianship is one of the greatest assets in Textures music. These are highly skilled musicians and lead singer Eric Kalsbeek has a powerful aggressive vocal style but his clean vocals are also quite impressive.

The production is clean and maybe a bit too polished at times, but it´s a suiting sound for the music on this album. "Drawing Circles" is a very recommendable album if you enjoy progressive/technical extreme metal in the vein of Meshuggah and Gojira. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)