Hyped as THE best Dutch Metal band at the moment, quite a few people have been buzzing over TEXTURES as of late, and with good reason. While I can’t answer whether or not TEXTURES are in fact the epitome of Dutch Metal, I can tell you that “Polars” is an interesting disc filled with a lot of very cool ideas.

TEXTURES bled Death, Thrash and, oddly enough, Metalcore, for a mixture that will be refreshing for those who manage to get by the vocals (the Metalcore part). The music itself consists of plenty of technical stop-start and machinegun styled riffs, layered with the occasional keyboards.

The aforementioned vocals (a high, shrieky scream) will undoubtedly put a lot of potential fans off, but after a while, the vocals seem to fit, I can’t really imagine this band with a different style. The sporadic use of clean vocals also helps accentuate the songs.

The most pleasing thing about this album is the immediately recognizable elements found within. Tracks like “Young Man” seem to have been lifted right out of an unreleased SOILWORK album, while the keyboard passages on “Ostensibly Impregnable” have a certain DEVIN TOWNSEND flair to them.

While the band does lose some points for what almost seems like outright plagiarism at times, you can’t argue with the end result! (Online May 26, 2004)