Textures are masters of the slow build. If you’d never heard Textures before and “Consonant Hemispheres” was your first exposure to the band, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking these dudes are a bunch of softees based on the first minute of the song. But then things pick up a little… and then a little more… and then a lot more… and when you’re furiously headbanging by the time this song finishes you’re left wondering how the fuck they got from Point A to Point B so seamlessly. That’s the beauty of Textures, that’s what makes them so different and that’s why their American fans were so ridiculously excited when they came to the States for the first time ever this fall; they’re positively captivating and they construct songs in unexpected ways.

Check out this pro-shot performance of “Consonant Hemispheres” — one of my favorite tracks from Dualism — recently shot live on Dutch TV show. In case you haven’t heard Dualism yet, well, four MetalSucks writers liked it enough to place it on their Top 15 of 2011 lists so that should certainly tell ya something; check out a few tunes here. U.S. and Canadian fans can get 10% off in the Textures merch store through the holidays by using discount code “TEXTDECFTN.”

-VN

FEATURING MEMBERS OF AT THE GATES, TEXTURES, GRIDLINK, FIGHT AMP, MONSTRO, GLORIOR BELLI, VALLENFYRE, HOODED MENACE, AND PORTRAIT

Every year year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of nine to ten musicians at a time two to three times a day for the whole week.

After the jump, check out the next group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

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On October 6th, the Frak the Gods tour — featuring Periphery, Textures and The Contortionist, with Stray From the Path taking the place of The Human Abstract — rolled through New York City for a very appreciative sold-out crowd at the Gramercy Theater. MetalSucks faves The Binary Code opened the show, and MS photographer Mariel “Tormentia” Pietrykoski was there to capture all the action. Take a look at her photos after the jump.

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Last week we gave away two copies of the brand new 5-CD UFO box set, The Chrysalis Years.

• Michael: “My Juggalo trap finally worked!”
• Gasputin: “Twig Destroyer.”

This week one lucky winner will receive a copy of Textures‘ excellent new record Dualism signed by all six of those crafty Dutchmen, along with any of the t-shirt designs you can see here in the size of your choice. You know the drill: leave a comment with the funniest caption to the photo below, submitted by MS reader Jason Solomon. Remember to use a real email address (or post it along with your comment if you’re using FB Connect / Twitter etc).

Happy birthday, Reign in Blood! We love you. You don’t sound a day over one.

Here’s some other things that happened this week which are worth celebrating:

• We started the countdown to The Metal Suckfest.
• We debuted new music by Immolation and a new video by Early Graves.
• Devin Townsend and Textures’ Jochem Jacobs and Bart Hennephof took us through their live rigs.
• GWAR’s David Brockie discussed the NFL, Daath’s Eyal Levi discussed getting the fuck out, and God Forbid’s Doc Coyle discussed how the times, they are a changin’.
• We spoke to Mike Muir from Suicidal Tendencies, Mother of Mercy’s Bob Wilson, and directors Sean Dunne and Kenneth Thomas.
• We checked out new releases by Ghoul and Taake and Craft.
• Sergeant D. became the most popular feminist in metal.
• Bring Me the Horizon’s Oli Sykes had a bad week.
• We mourned the death of the album intro track.
• We wondered if Mastodon’s live vocals are getting better.

Now go crank some Slayer.

See ya Monday.

-AR

I’m officially making the switch from the Top Hard Music chart to the Current Hard Music chart for the purposes of this column. While it’s interesting to see what classic Metallica and Aerosmith albums are charting and I still may occasionally reference the former, the latter chart paints a much clearer picture of the modern metal landscape by opening up more room for new records that sell less than classics, allowing a larger number of relevant new releases to place in the Top 100.

This chart has a slightly different way of tallying new releases, where sometimes they appear as having already been on for one week before official release — I’m still sorting through precisely what that difference is — so occasionally the chart positions are a little mixed up. But this only comes into play much farther down the list and this chart still provides a good gauge of relativity.

Now, onto the releases: as you all no doubt know, Mastodon and Machine Head were the biggies last week, and both did quite well — but the album that ended up at #1 is also a debut, and none of us saw it coming. Sebastian Bach, Warbringer and Maylene & The Sons of Disaster fared well in Week 1, while new records from Rose Funeral, Textures, Suffokate, Rwake, Brutal Truth and many, many more also appeared in the Top 100.

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Dutch progressive technical metallers Textures just released their new album Dualism last week; you can still stream the entire thing over at Guitar World. They’re currently touring the U.S. with Periphery, The Human Abstract and The Contortionist so we thought it’d be a good time to check in with guitarist (and producer!) Jochem Jacobs about the live rig he’s using. Turns out his fellow axeman Bart Hennephof uses the exact same rig, which not only makes setting up a breeze but gives us two Rigged features for the price of one. After the jump, we hand it over to Jochem to tell you guys about his and Bart’s rig:

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No longer is the MetalSucks live show slate confined to just North America; in case you missed it when we announced it a few weeks back, MetalSucks has decided to show some love towards our friends across the pond by sponsoring the Euroblast festival in Germany! Mnemic, Textures, TesseracT, Vildhjarta, Sybreed, Monuments and Chimp Spanner are just some of the awesome European bands that will play this 2-day, 2-stage festival in Cologne on the 21st and 22nd of October. If you’re anywhere within reasonable airplane or train distance of Cologne you simply can’t afford to miss out.

Watch the brand new trailer below and get excite:

HUGE drop of new releases this week including much-anticipated new records from Mastodon and Machine Head, as well as a ton of excellent other stuff from Craft, Dead In The Dirt, Landmine Marathon and more. My release reviews are a bit shorter than usual just due to the sheer volume of material coming out this week, but I think I covered most points of interest. Check it out after the jump.  On a side note, Metalsucks wants to send a birthday shout-out to Rodney Githens, member of Vertebrae 33 and the artist behind the awesome Metal Suckfest poster.  Have a good one, dude.

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Let’s just get this out of the way: Textures’ ridiculously good new album, Dualism, is now streaming in full right here.

If you’re still reading this… I don’t know why you’re still reading it. I just told you that THE NEW TEXTURES ALBUM IS STREAMING. Who gives a fuck what some dumb blogger has to say? JUST GO LISTEN TO IT.

If you are still reading this, well, I hope it’s AFTER you’ve listened to the album, and now you just wanna discuss your favorite song in the comments section. I’m particularly fond of “Sanguine Draws the Oath” myself — the riff is awesome, and that whole echoey guitar thing going on just underneath the riff is also awesome. Of course, there’s no wrong answer — the whole album is pure rulage.

Dualism comes out September 27 on Nuclear Blast, and can pre-ordered here. The band is touring with Periphery, The Human Abstract, and The Contortionist right now; get dates here.

-AR

Textures have done it again with another visually stunning music video. You might remember the water-themed video they made for “Awake” three years ago; it turns out their obsession with this planet’s waterways wasn’t short-lived, as the video for “Reaching Home” finds the band again aching for the water — this time the ocean. “Reaching Home” isn’t even the only water-themed song on their new album, Dualism; water is deeply entrenched in their being.

The video for “Reaching Home,” shot on Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands, is so satisfying to watch; the colors, the ocean, the CG, the landscapes, the cinemetal debut of new vocalist Daniel de Jongh. Best of all it was produced in-house by the band’s bassist Remko Tielemans (with help from Kunststoff Media), who also created the album artwork for Dualism and handles the band’s merch designs.

Dualism will be released on September 27th in North America (September 23rd in other territories), and is available for pre-order together with a number of merch bundles. The band is giving away a Textures Signature Series Mayones guitar to one randomly chosen winner who pre-orders a bundle. Catch them on tour in the U.S. now with Periphery, The Human Abstract and Contortionist (get dates here). And lastly, our friends at Heavy Blog is Heavy are hosting an “Ask Textures Anything” Q&A; get on it!

-VN

MetalSucks readers love to complain that the tours we sponsor don’t come through their town, especially if said town is in Florida. While the fact of the matter is that we don’t have control over the cities that the tours we sponsor stop in, one of the many places our sponsored tours have never been to is Europe, anywhere at all in the diverse continent. To that end we’re one of many fine sponsors on this year’s Euroblast festival — their 7th year — a two-day event set to take place in Cologne, Germany on October 21st and 22nd.

Mnemic and Textures will headline, with support from TesseracT, Vildhjarta, Sybreed, Monuments, Chimp Spanner and a number of other awesome bands. If you’re a fan of progressive metal and you live anywhere within striking distance of Cologne (which is pretty much anywhere in Europe, since Europe’s train systems and regional airlines put those in the U.S. to shame in terms of affordability and convenience), there’s no reason whatsoever you shouldn’t be at this festival.

Find more info about the event, the bands, ticketing and more at the official Euroblast site.

You’ve already had the opportunity to hear two songs from Textures’ forthcoming release Dualism, but there’s no way you could have any idea of what the entire album has in store; it’s expansive, it’s forward thinking, it’s technical, it’s delicate, it’s heavy, it’s atmospheric… it’s all the things you love about Textures, but all in greater doses than ever before.

Lucky for you, MetalSucks is hosting an exclusive NYC listening party on August 31st at our most favoritest bourbon/beer/rock joint Idle Hands Bar. The entire band will be in attendance chatting, signing autographs and sipping whiskey, fresh off the plane from the Netherlands a couple of days in advance of their first ever U.S. tour (with Periphery, The Human Abstract and The Contortionist; dates here). This will be your first chance to hear Dualism in full, almost a month before its release (September 27th in the U.S., September 23rd everywhere else via Nuclear Blast), so don’t miss out!

Idle Hands is at 25 Avenue B, between 2nd and 3rd streets, downstairs. The listening party starts at 9pm and is only open to those 21 and over.

Not only has Revolver just debuted a terrific new Textures ditty called “Reaching Home,” but they’ve got an interview with drummer Stef Broks about the song, too. Which means you need to get your ass to Revolver.

And, like I was sayin’, “Reaching Home” is awesome — and you can rest assured that so is the rest of Textures’ new album, Dualism. It’s diverse, too — “Reaching Home” is quite melodic and there’s obviously nothing wrong with that, but if you’re a cranky dude like me, I can assure fans that there’s some way, way heavier shit on the record, too.

Dualism comes out September 23 on Nuclear Blast. You can pre-order it here for U.S. headbangers and here for those in Europe. As if you needed any more incentive to buy the album, you should know that all Indie Merch pre-orders will be automatically entered into a raffle to win a Textures Mayones guitar, which is obviously way sweet.

And don’t forget that Textures will be touring North America for the first time ever this fall, and with Periphery, The Human Abstract, and The Contortionist, no less. Get dates here.

-AR

Here’s the best new song you’ll hear all day, and possibly all week: “Singularity,” the first officially-released track off of Textures’ new album, Dualism. (There was a live bootleg of a different new tune earlier this summer, but obviously the quality of this studio recording is a million times better.)

As part of my awesome job as a blogger, I’ve been privileged enough to hear Dualism already, and it does not disappoint. Like 2008′s Silhouettes, it’s full of proggy goodness that combines angular Meshuggah-esque riffage with Faith No Moreian semi-pop sensibilities, and if you were at all worried about new vocalist Daniël de Jongh, those concerns will dissolve away the very millisecond he opens his mouth. There’s also a range of types of extreme music on the record; even if you’re too thick-skulled to enjoy “Singularity,” there will be something on this album you’re gonna dig. Dualism fucking rules.

Go here to check out “Singularity.” You’ll have to like Textures on Facebook to hear the track, but you should be screaming your love for this band from mountain tops anyway. Dualism is available for pre-order here for U.S. headbangers and here for those in Europe.

And don’t forget that Textures will be touring North America for the first time ever this fall, and with Periphery, The Human Abstract, and The Contortionist, no less. Get dates here.

-AR

So here’s some awesome awesome awesome news: Textures have announced that their new album, Dualism, will be released by Nucelar Blast on September 27 in North America and September 23 pretty much everywhere else. And — BONUS! — they’ve unveiled the album art, in a gloriously large format which we can all appreciate:

So that’s obviously not your typical metal album cover, but Textures aren’t your typical metal band, and I still think it’s pretty sweet, so, yeah, whatevs.

And as if this wasn’t all enough to make you sexually aroused, don’t forget that Textures will be touring North America for the first time this fall, and with Periphery, The Human Abstract, and The Contortionist, no less. Get dates here.

-AR

IT’S HANUKKAH IN ALMOST-JULY!!!

After two weeks of salivating over the mere thought, dates for Periphery’s first-ever headlining tour — which will feature support from The Human Abstract, The Contortionist, and, playing for the first time ever in North America, Textures — have been announced. This is certainly one of the can’t-miss tours of the fall; pretty much any one of these bands alone would be sufficient reason to buy a ticket, but together, they’re like one mighty, proggy, Voltron of modern metal.

I cannot wait.

Here’s the itinerary:

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Well THAT’S not a shitty line-up.

Periphery are gonna do their first-ever headlining trek starting in September. And we would all pretty much go no matter what, ’cause it’s Periphery, and Periphery rules.

But just to make extra, extra sure that you’re onboard, the band is bringing The Human Abstract, Textures, and The Contortionist along with them.

I can’t emphasize enough what a great bill that is. I know a lot of you who wanted to see THA on their most recent headlining tour didn’t get to, ’cause the tour was cut short due to the loss of a family member of one of the dudes in the band, so here will be your chance to finally get to see them do all that great Digital Veil material live. And it’s Textures’ first time in playing North America, which means, by gosh, you MUST MUST MUST go see them.

Tour dates haven’t been announced yet, but the second we have ‘em, you shall as well.

-AR

How did we ever miss this? We’ve been following the progress of the new Textures album (their first since 2008′s Silhouettes, which single-handedly bolstered stock in the Kleenex Corporation by 180%) with such rabid excitement that I have no idea how we never saw this footage of the band performing a new song in Delhi. The clip has been online since November, fer Chrissakes!

Oh well, no matter — reader Ashley Lee sent us a link to the vid, and now we can all indulge. As is the case with almost all live bootlegs, the A/V quality is questionable, but it’s good enough for me to know that I want to hear this new offering immediately. Alas, I shall have to wait until the fall, when Nuclear Blast is scheduled to release the group’s new, yet-to-be-titled album.

Also, if someone could please bring Textures to America to perform for me (and, oh, okay, the band’s other fans, too), that would be swell.

-AR

Sheesh you are getting old…  The best years and achievements are clearly behind you, and it’s time to give in to the slow ride downhill to mediocrity.

Right?

Hmmm…..let’s hope not.

Regardless of what’s ahead, it’s important to keep remembering where you came from, how your experiences have shaped you, and what to learn from them for the future. Duh.

Case in point: three of our very favorite bands are currently recording new albums, and while the jury may be out on how awesome said follow-ups will be, we have ample opportunity to look back at the past and think about what solid foundations have been built to make way for a healthy and expansive evolution…

Or the new albums may just all suck.  Who fucking knows?

-KW