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.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a copy of Nevermore front man Warrel Dane's first solo release. I had been following news about the recording process for some time from various sites, including Dane's own webpage, so the cd wasn't completely new to me. Ever since the Dreaming Neon Black tour way back in 2000, I've been completely hooked on these guys, and having had the fortunate chance to meet them on a few occasions, I have a huge amount of respect the Seattle based group. So, naturally, as soon as I hear a member of the band is working on a solo album, I start picturing some potentially awesome material...

...but then I hear that the guitar work is being done by Peter Wichers, the ex-Soilwork guitar front man. Here are the possibilities with this scenario:

Blasting it's way to your door, Scar Symmetry's third album Holographic Universe dropped on June 20th, and so far I haven't been able to turn it off. Following up on two already impressive albums, I was really hoping for something special, and for the most part they delivered. Unlike recent Soilwork albums, which is a sad rant for another day, this Swedish melodic death metal group can actually sing, shred, and growl, all while maintaining their core sound. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the title, but who really cares if the music is good, and this album delivers a solid set of twelve tracks with an awesome sixty minute running time.

Overall, the album is immediately catchy and hooks you hard. It's less aggressive than their older releases which gives me some mixed feelings, but I think they pull of this new refined sound well. Unlike past moments of brutal thrash, peppered with melodic highlights (a la Opeth) Holographic Universe focuses on melody and accents it with specific trash and growl moments.