Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Scar Symmetry
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release: 2006
Rating: 3.5/5
These guys play a seriously eye-catching take on metal that could well win over a much wider crowd. Workaholics Scar Symmetry are back with their second album in just two years. Anyone who liked the debut will be thrilled with its follow-up too, because Scar Symmetry pick up exactly where the debut left off.
Mixing death metal with progressive metal and classic melodic elements can be a double-edged sword when you’re aiming for the taste of the masses. Still, quite a few bands are giving it a go these days, and some, like Trivium or Opeth, have reached enviable popularity. So it’s not hard to describe Scar Symmetry as a band blazing a trail for some new branch of metal that gathers up the traits of various metal subgenres. Vocals first. It’s a blend of the extreme standards set by death metal, with clean melodic vocals standing right next to them as equals. The guitar riffing is varied and in places devilishly sharp, driven through a scorching thrash shred. The riffs carry the real explosiveness the band brings, strung together completely fluidly one after another in a complex but still insanely catchy form. Stacking different tempos and motifs within the songs creates a fascinating level of unpredictability. The passages and transitions holding this form together are hair-splittingly well thought out and set up so that Scar Symmetry never lose the thread for even a second on “Pitch Black Progress”. The devilish chopping suddenly spills over into an open melodic riff, with synthesizers erupting in the background to complement it and build a contrasting wall of sound that the melodic vocals slot right into. This genre-hopping guarantees a string of thrilling moods and a highly dynamic charge across the album’s entire running time. In the multi-voice arrangements built from clean melodic vocals (the duets rule!), Scar Symmetry veer toward Symphony X. So this is an album of genre opposites, but this time they come together in a contrast that’s attractive, like pluses and minuses pulling toward each other.
There’s no weak spot on the album, not a single song that misses the mark and would force the listener to skip it. Everything stands on completely equal footing. The level of technical polish in the performance and in the complex songwriting hits top-notch quality, and what we have here is an outstanding quintet of promising musicians who will surely take their calling a good deal further in the future. For fans of brutal extremes in heavy metal (death metal), “Pitch Black Progress” will once again be an overly melodic runt that spoils death metal’s healthy image in the eyes of the masses and so does more harm than good. On the other hand, Scar Symmetry are definitely a band of interest to anyone who sympathizes with bands like In Flames, Soilwork, Opeth, Into Eternity and Trivium. For all that, Scar Symmetry come across as special, offering a unique atmosphere soaked in obscurity and black drama, one that no matter how splendidly woven a melody is, and these Swedes sure know how to lay them down on tape, can’t be lifted out of the abyss! So, welcome to the hard world of reality. “Pitch Black Progress” is the point where metal’s brutal extremes shake hands with classic melodic elements, technically carried through the maximum magnification of flawless performance and flawless songwriting. An album that simply can’t, and won’t, leave anyone cold. Melodically appealing, yet with enough brutal crushing power to still break a headbanger’s neck! The moment heaven and hell merge into perfect equilibrium.
Lineup
Christian Alvestam – vocals
Jonas Kjellgren – guitar
Per Nilsson – guitar
Kenneth Seil – bass
Henrik Ohlsson – drums
Production
Jonas Kjellgren
Tracklist
1. The Illusionist
2. Slaves To The Subliminal
3. Mind Machine
4. Pitch Black Progress
5. Calculating The Apocalypse
6. Dreaming 24/7
7. Abstracted
8. The Kaleidoscopic God
9. Retaliator
10. Oscilliation Point
11. The Path Of Least Resistance
12. Carved In Stone*
13. Deviate From The Norm*
Album length: 48.26
*…bonus tracks
