Friday 20 May 2011

*Insert Confusingly Scientific Title

    Are you sat there craving some awesome melodic death metal right about now? Well even if you aren't the brand new Scar Symmetry album is very much worth checking out. If you have not heard this band before you simply must, and this is a great place to start.
   
    This is the second album since the departure of masterful vocalist Christian Älvestam and his replacement with growler Roberth Karlsson and clean singer Lars Palmqvist. Now whilst these vocalist's début album, Dark Matter Dimensions, was not quite as powerful as previous efforts with Christian and that it may have appeared that they could not fill his shoes even together, The Unseen Empire puts this to bed with a joint vocal performance that certainly matches and quite possibly surpasses even Christian's best. Roberth's growls may not be quite as formidable as Christian's, the linking between the two vocalist's is most impressive, such as on Seers Of The Eschaton which shows how much their chemistry has improved since DMD. It isn't just the improvement of the vocalists that deserves mention as the ever astounding guitarists Per and Jonas have written some of their most catchy hooks to date and still have enough shred to give Alex Lahlio and the lads a run for their money. 


    What The Unseen Empire doesn't have, unlike Dark Matter Dimensions is an instant anthem that stands above the rest of the album such as DMD's The Iconoclast. This is simply because TUE's songs are all of such a high and consistent quality that no single song stands out much further than the rest, although at a push it would probably have to be either The Anomaly or Illuminoid Dream Sequence. Fans of the band may have noticed that Scar Symmetry have also not lost their trait of naming songs with terms and words you will only understand if you are a either a leading scientist or Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory sitcom. 


    The Unseen Empire is another impressive album from this incredibly consistent and yet spectacular of bands, and further proves that these guys should be mentioned in the same breath as their peers Soilwork and even Children of Bodom. Finally a message to Scar Symmetry themselves. PLEASE come to the UK soon! I'll bake you a cake!


[8.5/10]


Listen to: The Anomaly, Illuminoid Dream Sequence, Alpha And Omega

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