As a fellow countryman of this band I have been following TEXTURES since they started gaining recognition. I saw them win the Metal Bash competition in 2003 as organised by Dutch Metal magazine AARDSCHOK. That was the start of me being an absolute fan. I bought their first album when it was self-released, only to buy it again after they signed with Listenable Records. of course I own all the albums myself in their physical form. I have reviewed several of those albums over the years, and without fail they were all outstanding. The band were always a force to be reckoned with, live as well as on disc, and one of the great inspirational bands in mainly the Djent but also the Mathcore genres. I guess nowadays we would call their musical style Metalcore, but that's not what it was back then. I also have interviewed several of the band members and have seen them countless time before they decided to take a break.

After a ten year hiatus TEXTURES are back. "Genotype" came to us the public on 6 February 2026 and I can say that a lot of reviewers, like me, were jumping at the bits to get their hands on the material. And let me start by saying that although TEXTURES doesn't disappoint on this album, it is not as impressive as all their efforts before. Yes, the polyrhythms as well as the intricate structures are still very much a major ingredient within their music, but "Genotype" isn't as outspoken and elaborate as their former material. Although I have to admit that "At The Edge Of Winter", with the outstanding participation by the magnificent Charlotte Wessels does come close to what TEXTURES used to make when they were younger.

The songs on "Genotype" are without fail very good, and have all the elements you would hope they would use, even if as a whole it all is a bit more mellow than what you're used to with TEXTURES. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, but the lack of extreme heavy, fast or loud parts, as well as lesser amount of breaks and tempo changes make this album a whole lot easier to digest that anything TEXTURES did before. That is nice, but not what I was hoping for, and I expect a lot of other fans feel the same. They wanted the bad to let loose again, throw us as audience from left to right, up and down and every which way but straight ahead. "Genotype" is still a bloody good album; it just doesn't reach the ultimate and outstanding heights that the former albums all were able to reach and achieve.