Textures - Polars
Listenable Records - POSH058 - 2004
By Philip Whitehouse
I'm pretty sure everyone who heard this record for the first time will think exactly the same thing that I did - have I just put on a Meshuggah record? Right from the opening moments of Polars, it's obvious that the time-signature-hopping Swedes are an important formative influence to this Dutch group's sound - frantically thrashed-out, hyperspeed polyrhythmic riffage and off-kilter, mode-switching lead guitar make up the majority of the material within. But scratch the surface and more interesting things become noticeable - like the weirdly ambient guitar leads that show a more progressive slant on the whole technical death metal thing. Or like the occasional bursts of prime-Soilwork-esque melodic breaks which put to shame anything that particular gang of Gothenberg scenesters have put out lately.
And there's even more than that too - like the gorgeously multi-layered clean vocal refrain that signals the end of the first third of 'Ostensibly Impregnable' which is rapidly followed by an entrancingly ambient passage featuring a guitar solo that sounds like it was played by the spawn of Fredrik Nordenthal and John Petrucci, which then gradually speeds up into some primo European thrash! Or like the jaw-droppingly atmospheric and hypnotic passage about halfway through 'Transgression' that sees the brutality drop away for a beautifully minimalist clean guitar melody, heavily reverbed languid drum hits and - of all things - a soprano saxophone - which gradually soothes the nerves, before the band come crashing back, full-tilt and faster than before.
There's some brutal material here too - the vocalist generally screams like there's an ant colony invading his pubic thatch for the majority of the record, the bass grinds away with the frantic guitars, while the drummer presumably had an octopus in his parentage to cope with the skitterish fills, maddening time-signature jumps and machine-gun kick drumming. However, there are glitches in all this - for instance, the ambient electronic interludes 'Effluent' and the 14:34 closing track 'Heave' pretty much sound like samples of someone slowly running their finger around the rim of a crystal wine glass, and adding a lot of reverb. The first occurance is a patience-tester, but to have nearly a quarter of an hour of it to close the album is especially aggravating. Fair play for trying something different lads, but how about trying something other than the listener's patience?
For all that, however, the actual metal-centric material on Polars is absolutely top-notch stuff. Fantastically written, amazingly technical with an ear for an unusual melody and all wrapped in a flawless production. If you think you can stomach the ambient interludes and can see past the Meshuggah influence, then Polars will be spinning in your decks for some time to come.
8/10
Textures Official Website
Listenable Records
Listenable Records - POSH058 - 2004
By Philip Whitehouse
I'm pretty sure everyone who heard this record for the first time will think exactly the same thing that I did - have I just put on a Meshuggah record? Right from the opening moments of Polars, it's obvious that the time-signature-hopping Swedes are an important formative influence to this Dutch group's sound - frantically thrashed-out, hyperspeed polyrhythmic riffage and off-kilter, mode-switching lead guitar make up the majority of the material within. But scratch the surface and more interesting things become noticeable - like the weirdly ambient guitar leads that show a more progressive slant on the whole technical death metal thing. Or like the occasional bursts of prime-Soilwork-esque melodic breaks which put to shame anything that particular gang of Gothenberg scenesters have put out lately.
And there's even more than that too - like the gorgeously multi-layered clean vocal refrain that signals the end of the first third of 'Ostensibly Impregnable' which is rapidly followed by an entrancingly ambient passage featuring a guitar solo that sounds like it was played by the spawn of Fredrik Nordenthal and John Petrucci, which then gradually speeds up into some primo European thrash! Or like the jaw-droppingly atmospheric and hypnotic passage about halfway through 'Transgression' that sees the brutality drop away for a beautifully minimalist clean guitar melody, heavily reverbed languid drum hits and - of all things - a soprano saxophone - which gradually soothes the nerves, before the band come crashing back, full-tilt and faster than before.
There's some brutal material here too - the vocalist generally screams like there's an ant colony invading his pubic thatch for the majority of the record, the bass grinds away with the frantic guitars, while the drummer presumably had an octopus in his parentage to cope with the skitterish fills, maddening time-signature jumps and machine-gun kick drumming. However, there are glitches in all this - for instance, the ambient electronic interludes 'Effluent' and the 14:34 closing track 'Heave' pretty much sound like samples of someone slowly running their finger around the rim of a crystal wine glass, and adding a lot of reverb. The first occurance is a patience-tester, but to have nearly a quarter of an hour of it to close the album is especially aggravating. Fair play for trying something different lads, but how about trying something other than the listener's patience?
For all that, however, the actual metal-centric material on Polars is absolutely top-notch stuff. Fantastically written, amazingly technical with an ear for an unusual melody and all wrapped in a flawless production. If you think you can stomach the ambient interludes and can see past the Meshuggah influence, then Polars will be spinning in your decks for some time to come.
8/10
Textures Official Website
Listenable Records
