He then briefly dabbled with a heavier, neo-classical metal style for his 1999 release, Ascend, which featured keyboardist Vitalij Kuprij. During this time he collaborated twice with guitarist Richie Kotzen for the albums Tilt and Project in 19, respectively. Ī trio of albums spanning the middle part of the decade – Uncertain Terms (1994), Parallax (1995) and Five (1996) – were all a consistent evolution of the sound he had adopted on Introspection. One particularly noteworthy aspect of Howe's legato technique is the " hammer-on from nowhere", in which a note is hammered-on to a different string without first being picked. At this point his style had changed radically from the straightforward instrumental rock of both his debut and the Howe II albums, to a more jazz fusion-laden approach which remains unique and identifiable to this day some of his signature traits being fast left-hand legato passages (having been influenced greatly by jazz fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth), and the frequent use of tapping and odd time signatures.
His second solo album, Introspection, was released in 1993. Through Shrapnel, they released two studio albums: High Gear (1989) and Now Hear This (1991). The following year, he joined with Albert to form a Van Halen-inspired hard rock group named Howe II.
His self-titled debut album, Greg Howe, was released in 1988 during the popular shred era, and went on to become his highest-selling album a 2009 article in Guitar World magazine ranked it tenth in the all-time top ten list of shred albums. After leaving high school and playing the club circuit around the New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania areas with his brother Albert Howe (a singer) for most of the 1980s, Greg Howe officially began his solo career after sending a demo tape to Shrapnel Records in 1987, upon which he was immediately signed by founder Mike Varney.