If you haven't heard this yet, you will now... enter Cloudkicker, my addiction for the last week straight:

After waiting a couple of years for the right opportunity, I've been lucky enough to spend ten days in Belgrade, Serbia hanging out with a good friend and following the up and coming heavy metal band Draconic. Not only is this city extremely fun to hang out in, but the metal fans here are some of the friendliest and most hardcore group of people I've ever met. The first night I was already head banging and drinking beer with them only a few hours after getting off the plane. It's going to be an interesting week to say the least!

But moving on to the band... these guys rock HARD. Not only are they very tight and play like pros, but the amount of energy they bring to the show is impressive. Every song results in an all out explosion of sound from stage and is matched by the feedback from the audience. I expect great things to come of them in the near future. Their first major record From the Wrong Side of the Aperture is already available in Europe and is set to be released soon in North America as well. According to the bass player, Lazar Galic, the band already has a great deal of new material and is hoping to start work a new release soon.

A couple of weeks ago I met up with an old metal buddy of mine and we got the chance to catch up on what each other had been listening to recently. After going on a full out rant on how certain bands that used to be amazing absolutely bore the shit out of me now *cough* Soilwork, Zero Hour, Iced Earth *cough*, he mentioned how he was really into this relatively new band Textures and their latest release Silhouettes. Knowing that we have similar tastes in music and that he wouldn't promote it if it wasn't seriously good, I had to check it out... prepare to be brutalized, this is your new obsession.

Right from the beginning this album is just begging to kick your ass, and it does with some really poignant moments. Silhouettes is a cross between melodic death and progressive metal with some really great thrashy metalcore moments thrown in. Honestly, it's a very hard sound to classify since the band is so versatile. Either way, the band has really matured on this album compared to earlier releases. Hearing all of them for the first time I could really see the way they've evolved over the years and the current sound is definitely their best.