How Textures Proved That the Best Comeback Is the One Nobody Expected
Textures Genotype. Not a comeback but a reintroduction. The band that helped invent djent reclaims its territory. Reviewed.
When Textures announced their disbandment in 2018, the progressive metal community absorbed the loss with the quiet resignation reserved for bands whose influence exceeds their commercial footprint. The Dutch outfit helped define djent before the word existed, and their absence was felt not as a void but as a slow leak. Genotype, arriving on Kscope in January 2026, plugs the leak with a record that is less a comeback and more a reintroduction.
The title is a deliberate counterpart to 2016’s Phenotype. Where phenotype describes observable characteristics, genotype refers to molecular structure, and that distinction is basically the album’s thesis. “At the Edge of Winter,” featuring former Delain vocalist Charlotte Wessels, is the statement track. Sharp synth stabs build into chunky guitars, and Wessels brings a dimension that lifts the song beyond standard progressive metalcore. Daniël de Jongh’s vocals, clean and harsh, anchor every track with a delivery the eight-year absence has not dimmed.
“Closer to the Unknown” has guitar work that will be a live highlight. But the criticism is fair, and here is the thing, there is too much atmospheric padding between the riffs. The ratio of landscape to architecture could be flipped and the album would be stronger. “Void,” the opening instrumental, ruminates on swelling keyboards to the point of stalling the record’s own momentum before it starts.
Genotype was written entirely from scratch, unrelated to the sessions abandoned in 2018, and that fresh start is audible. The compositions are more melodic and catchy than Phenotype, less chaotic, less technical, more accessible. For a band that helped invent a genre and then watched it mutate beyond recognition, this is a measured reclamation of territory. Not everything works. But what works, works with the authority of a band that has nothing left to prove.
