Gruesome, the loving homage to Death and Chuck Shuldiner from Exhumed's Matt Harvey and other death metal veterans, is back with their third album, Silent Echoes. After taking their inspiration from early Death releases on their first two albums, Gruesome now focuses on the Human era with all the shifts in the music that implies. The playing on Silent Echoes is more technical and precise, the songwriting more intricate and progressive and the lyrics less allegorical and violent, instead focusing on social and personal topics, as was the case with Human. The sound is brutal and biting, yet melodic and dynamic, unmistakably death metal but never boring, repetitive or flagrantly derivative. Crushing guitars, machine-gun drums, caustic shouting and some very catching riffs make Silent Echoes an album that more than just death metal fans can enjoy. The care with which Harvey and crew craft Gruesome's music and sound is very evident, and I don't see how any Death fan wouldn't, at the very least, appreciate that fact. Whether or not they like what Gruesome does is up to each individual fan, but seeing as there will likely never be a new Death album, Gruesome is the next best thing.