The Monkeys were going apeshit this morning around dawn making it impossible for anyone near their Wing to sleep (he always complains, but there ARE perks to that dungeonous basement room we assigned Anso). Seems a press release had come in around 7:15am announcing that Textures had replaced Eric Kalsbeek, who departed two months ago, with Daniel de Jongh of Dutch experimental metallers Cilice.

Cilice are a phenomenal band (who I profiled here and here) who combine heavy, down-tuned grooves with breathtaking melodic passages. In short, they sound a whole lot like Textures. It’s a perfect match. I was actually just playing Cilice’s Deranged Headtrip for the Metal Road Trip partiers last week and got a whole lot of “Wow, who is THIS?” reactions. They’re a really good band and de Jongh is a very talented vocalist who should be more than capable of filling Kalsbeek’s shoes.

This is a great move for Textures and a great move for de Jongh; the only people who get the shaft here are the poor lads in Cilice who suddenly find themselves vocalist-less. Hopefully we can expect a new Textures record this year because lord knows it feels like FOREVER ago that they released the stunning Silhouettes even though 2008 wasn’t that long ago. The press release promises the live debut of de Jongh this Summer, presumably at European festivals. How ’bout that U.S. tour now, guys?

-VN