Scar Symmetry - Pitch Black Progress

Scar Symmetry

Pitch Black Progress

Nuclear Blast Records/Riot! Distributors

In melodic death metal terms, Scar Symmetry's 2005 debut effort "Symmetric In Design" (Released through both Metal Blade Records and Nuclear Blast Records) was a solid effort, and showed plenty of promise for things to come. And while a certain amount of progression was to be expected with their new release, I certainly wasn't expecting quite the jump that's evident throughout "Pitch Black Progress". Formed in 2004, the Swedish quintet (Featuring Angel Blake/Incapacity/Unmoored vocalist Christian Älvestam, ex-Altered Aeon/World Below guitarist Per Nilsson, ex-Carnal Forge/Centrix guitarist Jonas Kjellgren, bassist Kenneth Seil and Altered Aeon drummer Henrik Ohlsson) have wasted no time in following up their debut with an album that proves that melodic death metal needn't sound tired and repetitive, with "Pitch Black Progress" taking elements of both latter day Soilwork and In Flames, yet pushing them just forward far enough to come up with a sound that once again breathes new life into what has essentially been a lifeless genre of late.

The opener (And the first promotional video clip from the album) "The Illusionist" is a good representation of what to expect from the album with blackened thrash riffing, melodic keyboards and impeccable solo work abound, but the real jewel in Scar Symmetry's crown is Älvestam, who manages to provide both a convincing death growl and incredible clean vocals that never fail to amaze. With "Slaves To The Subliminal", Scar Symmetry balance the aggressive with the melodic, which could easily please fans from both camps without relying too heavily on either one way or the other, while the opening riff in "Mind Machine" could easily be mistaken for any number of Soilwork songs of late, but is soon twisted around to make way for something a little more original sounding within the chorus.

The title track "Pitch Black Progress", "Retaliator", "Calculate The Apocalypse", "Abstracted" and the diverse and lengthy "The Kaleidoscopic God" are by far the albums heaviest tracks with the band leaning more towards modern day thrash and Älvestam keeping the clean elements to a bare minimum, while tracks such as the more progressive metal based "Dreaming 24/7", "Oscillation Point" and the powerful parting track "The Path Of Least Resistance" perfectly balance melodic death metal with soaring melodic choruses, without sounding forced or misplaced at any point.

Melodic death metal, much like any genre that's taken off in a major way, has been bastardised to the point where we're starting to see clones of the original clones. But for all the unoriginal copy acts the labels push out endlessly, Scar Symmetry's "Pitch Black Progress" stands out as something fresh and exciting. Maybe it's Älvestam's amazing vocal ability, the guitarists constant soloing or the constant genre jumping within the songs that keep things interesting, either way, I simply can't help but just enjoy this album a lot more than most in recent times.

For more information on Scar Symmetry, check out - https://www.facebook.com/scarsymmetry.

© Justin Donnelly.