"Dualism"is the fourth album by the Dutch math Metal sextet TEXTURES. They started out in the beginning of the millennia as just another MESHUGGAH copycat band (a very good one though) and it was only in their third album "Silhouettes" when they have finally realized their true potential, found their own unique sound and style. In my opinion that album is the pinnacle of their creation. It made them become one of my personal favorites at the time. So naturally there was a lot of weight and anticipation for me when I tried to imagine what their next album is going to be like, and as I had anticipated TEXTURES's new album isn't moving backwards, it is definitely a result of a mature band who has her own distinctive sound but it doesn't compare to its predecessor in many ways.

First of all the lineup change on the vocals is very crucial, in 2009 their former vocalist Eric Kalsbeek  has announced he is leaving the band in order to be with his family. When thinking about it, Eric is one of the best voices in Metal to ever exist, having both an amazing and unique clean voice and also great harsh vocals, at least for me. When I heard that he has left I became anxious about the band's future. When I heard that CILICE's Daniel De Jongh has left them in favor of joining TEXTURES I knew that the harsh vocals were not something I am going to need to worry about, but Daniel's clean voice really doesn't suit my taste, something about it just feels tacky and cheesy, and that leads me to another major problem with this album. It seems that TEXTURES has made attempts to  make  this album more accessible and poppy so whenever there is a soft part in this album it feels cheesy and cheap, maybe it was done to fit Daniel's voice. I'm not sure about that, but one of the thing that made TEXTURES so great up until now was that even when they did softer and more emotional parts it never sounded cheap. This is most abundantly clear if you compare between the song "Awake" from the previous album and this album's catchy soft song "Reaching Home". Both catch the spot of the poppy soft song but only the latter has that cheesy vibe to it.

One more thing that bothered me about this album is that unlike TEXTURES's previous releases, this album kind of comes out of the other ear, maybe it's just me but after listening to it several times the only songs that stuck with me were "Black Horses Stampede" and "Consonant Hemispheres". Those are only two out of eleven, eventually, I think this is the main reason why this album didn't manage to stand out even though it was made by an incredibly talented band and it's clearly more original than most recent releases in the genre.

On the upside, the album feels very whole and each song has its integral role in the mix.  Being able to create an album which is unified like that is a challenge all on its own. One more thing that is notable, which is objectively neither good nor bad because it is subjected to taste, is that this album is definitely less heavy then their previous releases and the heavy groovy parts TEXTURES are known for are a bit less abundant in this one. I personally did not care for it but those who are really into Alternative Rock might find this album more appealing than others. So when it comes down to the big question I can say that this is generally a good album and one that feels whole, but it is not a very good TEXTURES album, that is how I see it.