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.

I'm not sure what the motivation is behind the sudden trend for bands to totally change musical styles mid-career, but Goldfrapp's Seventh Tree is a shining example. Following up on two purely amazing electronica albums, Goldfrapp's newest release fails to even make it into the genre. From start to finish, the album cruises along in a sleepy snooze inducing light atmosphere with very few shining moments. Unlike previous albums that were nicely peppered with awesome thumping beats and beautifully crafted atmosphere, Seventh Tree never gets off the ground. I find myself waiting and waiting and, yep, more waiting, and then suddenly the album is over.

Early on in the recording process the band did in fact warn us that they were trying something very different for a change, but why does that always have to equal slow quaint music? Lately I've been seeing this trend a lot in the metal world, but I was very disappointed to see it happen with this great band as well. Having been a big fan of Black Cherry and Supernature, I was extremely pumped to see what they had in store... until I actually listened to it. Despite what I've read on multiple professional review sites, the album in no way sounds to me like a good direction for the band.