In 2003, the year of the launch of TEXTURES’ debut album Polars, the first reactions start to stream in: “This is the best metal album that’s ever come out of the Netherlands” according to the Dutch music magazine Oor. The standard is set. TEXTURES, once just a promising up-and-coming band from the South of the Netherlands, has now emerged, 3 albums later, as an established name in the worldwide metal scene. 

The band’s fourth album Dualism -- on the band’s new home Nuclear Blast -- is groovier, catchier, and the production even grander than its 2008 predecessor Silhouettes. The band’s trademark mix of expertly crafted brutality, melody, freaky, innovative rhythms and catchy vocals is still intact, with Bart Hennephof and Jochem Jacobs’s expertly crafted sonic… um… textures and the unruly heavy-hitting of drummer Stef Broks creating the perfect metal cocktail. The climaxes of the songs on Dualism have been elevated to a higher level, partially due to the contribution of their new keyboard player, Uri Dijk and new frontman Daniel de Jongh (ex-Cilice) who, as far as his sound goes, is every bit the talent as his predecessor Eric Kalsbeek. 

Once again, the band took total control of every facet of the album. Everything was recorded at Split Second Sound, the new Amsterdam-based studio belonging to Jacobs, who produced the album. The band also handled all their own artwork and merchandising, which was designed by bassist Remko Tielemans.

The last album, Silhouettes, received worldwide acclaim from the international press. Everybody from Europe to the U.S. to India could sing along to the song “Awake,” which received strong support from online metal communities and got prime time airplay on Radio 3 fm (NL), Radio 1 (UK) and Triple J (AU). The video clip got airplay on MTV in Europe and Russia, and VH1 in India. In the Netherlands TEXTURES reached the Album Top 100 for the very first time. The band played at Graspop in Belgium, the Great Escape in the UK, Tuska in Finland, Hellfest in France and Lowlands in their home country the Netherlands and also toured with Arch Enemy and All That Remains, among others.   

In 2009 the band flew to Bangalore to play India for the first time -- where they’d just been featured on the cover of India’s most prestigious rock magazine The Rock Street Journal – and delivered an explosive headline performance for over 5,000 fans. Exactly a year later they return for another festival, dazzling the University of New Delhi where the band was welcomed by throngs of thousands once again.

With two new band members, a new record label and a new album TEXTURES will be hitting the road once again, touring all over the world in support of the album and going places where they’ve never been before, both literally and metaphorically.

MEMBERS:
Daniel de Jongh - vocals
Jochem Jacobs - guitars
Bart Hennephof - guitars
Stef Broks - drums
Remko Tielemans - bass
Uri Dijk – synths


Heavy instrumental band TANK86 delivers mighty sonic blows, enlarged by the absence of vocals. 

Over the past years TANK86 has toured Europe with Dozer and stood it’s ground alongside bands such as Monster Magnet, Pelican and Karma to Burn.

2011 sees the release of “Rise”. After five years of honing their craft and the release two EP’s, the sound of TANK86 has now come to it’s full momentum. Harmonised guitars and a more layered approach add more depth to the already massive sound of the band. Never losing sight of the almighty riff, pounding you into oblivion.

Dutch rock band Death Letters have just recorded their second album Post-Historic in Texas. Though the punk influences remain, this new album will have a substantially different vibe, drawing more on a complex, psychedelic post rock sound than the blues rock they started out with. Watch out for Death Letters – things are only going to get more intense from here...

If you are an artist of any discipline, you would completely understand the unstoppable urge to create your own art. It’s an unexplainable force that makes you want to express yourself. This is the same for the Dutch alternative metal band SiMÓN: they can’t help making their dark, raw, dramatic, but melodic sludgy music. The state of the world, the destructive nature of men, the personal affections for the darker things in life and the joy of hanging out together and make great music; these elements combined created the matrix in which the band was formed.

From the beginning of the band in 2005 SiMÓN has always been about sharing the passion for creating and performing. Where their debut Slices Of You (2009) can be seen as a musical interpretation of brutally tearing the world to shreds, their second album The Inner Traveller (2014) describes the journey afterwards, musically as well as lyrically. It contains longer and epic compositions in a comprehensive mix of heavy, bombastic metal, psychedelic and melodic rock.
 In addition to the production of The Inner Traveller the band spent a few weeks recording in the famous Leidsche Schouwburg theatre. The ambience of this 300 years old theatre was monumental, haunting and isolating, which has become the foundation of the album. The band has engineered, produced and mixed the album themselves (just like their debut Slices Of You) and had it mastered by Jochem Jacobs at the Split Second Sound Studio in Amsterdam. The Inner Traveller has been digitally released by Redfield Records in December 2013 and was released on Double 12” Colored Vinyl by the band itself in April 2014. 
New songs were already under construction while finishing The Inner Traveller, but since the beginning of 2015 SiMÓN has started to focus on writing new music for an upcoming release in early 2016. Musically they will further develop their characteristic style and try to bring it to a next level. Inspired by their intense live performances the new material proves to be more energetic, louder and in your face.

The members of the Rotterdam based band SiMÓN have been active in the Dutch music scene for many years and have been involved with bands like Face Tomorrow, Dreadlock Pussy, Viberider, Dead By Dawn and Sk;rl. Having played and worked with bands such as Textures, Torche, Pelican, Callisto, A Storm Of Light, Karma To Burn, Tank 86, Izah, Amen Ra and many others. 


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