Napalm Flesh: Textures Interview

Only ten days till Christmas, star-spawns. Are you done with your shopping? Or, like me, are you waiting to begin it in a hail of barbarian howls, swinging fists and pile-drives to the elderly? Maybe we should go back to the sacrificial orgies at the solstice; there’s no way cow blood could be harder to get out of clothes than the blood of bargain hunters. But I digress; for the holidays, Napalm Flesh brings you tidings of prog and djent in this week’s blog. A few months ago, Salt Lake was honored with a visit from Textures on their very first US tour in support of new album Dualism, and we were lucky enough to grab an interview with drummer Stef Broks, which I now give to you, dear darkhearts. It’s way better than a package of tube socks. Merry fucking Xmas! We’ve also got your trusty web-exclusive reviews, including Jesse Leach’s new prog-project The Empire Shall Fall and a review of the newest effort from Saturnian Mist.

Hey, speaking of sacrificial orgies, here’s your weekly metal calendar; get out there and spread some holiday cheer!

Thursday the 15th (hey that’s today!), check out former Static-X frontman Wayne Static at The Complex. Doors are at 6, and tickets are $18.

Saturday the 17th, don’t miss Parallax, Despite Despair and Hi Fi Massacre at Muse. You can hear an interview with Parallax about their final show on this week’s episode of SLUG’s podcast, Soundwaves From the Underground.

INTERVIEW WITH STEF BROKS of TEXTURES
Progressive metal bands are sprouting up all over the scene like dandelions on freshly mowed grass, and the new faces have a few bands to thank for clearing the way to the musical wonderland technical metal fans now find themselves in. One of those bands to thank is most certainly The Netherlands-based Textures, who have been putting out solid, layered, progressive and unique albums since 2001. Their career has not been without its speed bumps, including the recent ground-shaking lineup change of their vocalist just as work began on their newest album. But Textures is a horse of a different color, and what would destroy most metal acts has only strengthened them. This summer they embarked on their very first US tour with fellow progressive acts Periphery and The Contortionist; their recently released album Dualism is reaching new corners of the earth; and all in all, these men are poised to conquer. I was lucky enough to catch up with drummer Stef Broks after their appearance in Salt Lake and find out how they’ve endured the last decade, and what’s over the horizon for Textures.

SLUG: How has this tour been so far?
Stef Broks: It’s great! Especially the weather is awesome, and the scenery. We are really culture-minded guys, of course we’re in it for the music but we’re also in it to see the world, and going to America means a lot to us; we can see different cultures and enjoy different food. Especially the scenery in Arizona and the drive thru California was really awesome, one of the big experiences you have in life in general, I think.

SLUG: Is this the first visit to the US for all of you?
Broks: Some of the guys went to New York before but it’s definitely our first road trip through America. If you compare Europe to the US, the size from LA to NY is the same distance from London to Moscow. Travelling across Europe you pass 30 different languages and cultures in all these countries, and here you have all that in one country. You have more than that, really. In one day, you can pass 3 kinds of climates, which is really strange for us, but also really cool. On the biggest part of the tour we had the most amazing weather, which, especially being a Dutch guy where it rains all summer long, was a wonderful thing. We got a real summer.

SLUG: The new album’s just been released in Europe and not yet in the US, but are you guys hearing any feedback or reviews yet? How is it being received?
Broks: Most people are liking it, but of course that’s easy for me to say, every band member is going to tell you people like their new album. [laughs] But most reactions are great. I don’t know, there’s something going on with the band, I don’t know what it is but people, especially the press, they are focusing on this “djent” scene, it’s the new big thing. With bands like TesserACT and Periphery, and they put us and Meshuggah into this new djent-scene, and we are all constantly confronted with that which is great. We are getting a lot of attention now. It’s really the right album at the right moment for us. I think us being on Nuclear Blast is helping, it’s a way bigger record label than our previous label. My uncle from Holland called me, he’s a huge collector of Japanese editions of albums, and from a friend he got a Dualism promo all in Japanese and we were like, “What the fuck?!” We didn’t even know that there was something like that! A few years ago when Silhouettes was released, it was only in Europe and a small USA release, but now we’re in Japan. It’s getting big and it’s very exciting.

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