Scar Symmetry - The Unseen Empire

Published April 18 2011

*=Staff's pick	The Anomaly* Illuminoid Dream Sequence* Extinction Mantra Seers Of The Schaton Domination Agenda Astronomicon Rise Of The Reptilian Regime* The Draconican Arrival Alpha And Omega

Genre	Melodic Death Metal	Roberth Karlsson	Vocals
Tracks	10	Lars Palmqvist	Vocals
Runningtime	43 Min.	Jonas Kjellgren	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Per Nilsson	Guitar
Release	15 April 2011	Kenneth Sail	Bass
Country	Sweden	Henrik Ohlsson	Drums
Producer	Jonas Kjellgren		Keyboard
Similar artists	---

New record from one of the strongest acts within the melodic death metalscene, Scar Symmetry, always renders in a hell yeah from me. Scar Symmetry has managed to keep my interest since classic and inevitable as comparison "Pitch Black Progress" from 2006. This is of course a tad unfair - to claim that the band's releases after this classic album still have relevance is naturally obvious, and the predecessor to The Unseen Empire, Dark Matter Dimensions was rewarded after a significant number of listenings with a place on my personal best of 2009 list.

That this record demanded quite a few listenings before it really took off made me approach The Unseen Empire in much the same way - and this still feels like the right approach. I wouldn't be surprised if I would be forced to go back and raise the grade on this album in the future.

If you have heard Scar Symmetry before then The Unseen Empire will not come as a surprise - the sound is just as good as one has come to expect from this band. It just sounds really good - a nice fat sound with enough clarity to let through the more than awesome playing from the band. Opener The Anomaly is a very strong song with plenty of nice harmonies and enough partyfactor to be considered as a favorite in a liveset.

Singers Roberth Karlsson and Lars Palmqvist as always spoils us with really good singing in both the growling and clean-sung departments. Follower Illuminoid Dream Sequence delivers a very nice solid groove and snappy verses that works really well. And the rest of the album is very much in the same fashion - this is well executed, well sounding melodic death metal at its finest.

The things that I have to object to on the album is that I feel as though I have heard the record before - there is little in development and difference from the band's backcatalogue. To find their niche in the way Scar Symmetry have done is certainly not a bad thing and there are for sure plenty of much worse bands within the subgenre than Scar Symmetry. In spite of this I really long for the small details that would make the album differ from prior releases.

I'm certainly not demanding that the band should totally freak out and start meddling with animal soundsamples och ukuleles in their music, but still I feel that the band would really benefit from experimenting a bit more and become more than a band that releases good but records that feel a bit too much in the safe-zone.

In spite of my objections, The Unseen Empire is a really good album, and the grade should be considered as a strong one.

See also review of: Holographic Universe , Pitch Black Progress , Symmetric In Design

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
8	6	9	7	6

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Martin