I am a moron. Sometimes I just can’t hear good music at all and - very stubbornly - I will be admitting for many months that good stuff sounds like a crap. I think it’s like that because I am very moody, a real moody cow and it’s not easy to please me. Well, I did it again. And I am sorry, Textures, because your Drawing circles is amazing.
I was supposed to see you on last year’s ProgPower, but instead of listening to your beautiful, polyrhythmic madness I was standing outside Sjiva venue drinking coffee, thinking that there’s no harm in skipping your show. Blah. What a moron I was - once again. All, right, enough. Time for a short review.
Drawing cirlces is Textures second cd. First one, Polars was quite interesting musically, but unfortunately the band suffered from having not very good vocalist. But then the situation changed seriously with the arrival of Eric Kalsbeek - and this guy really knows his stuff. I would even say, that he’s one of my favourite vocalists now; very talented, can either scream like a haunted crazy fellow or sing, with keeping the melodic lines quite easily (and that’s not common for such a mad vocal chord ripper ;) Music itself is like something Meshuggah would do if they would really think about progressing at least a little (not that I don’t think their Chaosphere is one of the best technical metal cd’s I’ve heard - full respect!). I think the recipe for Drawing circles should be looking like that: take some Meshuggah, dip it in Death sauce, add some Cult of Luna and art-rock (yeah!) spices, and after that grind it with a little bit of old school technical thrash - later, mix it with Watchtower or Hexenhaus. Voila, ready to serve.
This is not an easy listening for somebody who is not used to heavy sound. But it’s very rewarding if you will convince yourself to spend some time with it. Well produced, musically balanced, refreshing. Recommended.

And I am going to see Textures tomorrow in Corporation. I can’t wait; I am sure I will enjoy it. They’re only supporting Misery Signals and All That Remains, but soon they’ll visit Sheffield again as the main act. Yeah. :)