Scar Symmetry's fifth album, the second since replacing original vocalist Christian Älvestam with two other guys (Robert Karlsson growling and Lars Palmqvist singing), throws a lot of ideas at the listener.
Sometimes, like on album-opener "The Anomaly," they're an AOR-prog rock band like Asia, with occasional guttural roars.
But on the very next song ("Illuminoid Dream Sequence"), they're doing a semi-industrial thing, with keyboards slathered all over everything, at least until the squealing guitar solo, or another growled verse from Karlsson, comes in.
"Seers of the Eschaton," meanwhile, is almost pure death metal, with a few keyboards here and there.
The biggest problem the band has is vocalist Palmqvist; he sounds like Simon Le Bon on a latter-day Duran Duran album.
Try imagining a Swedish melodic death metal act (Soilwork, for example) covering "Ordinary World"; that's what Palmqvist sounds like atop the music.
And when you're writing a concept album about the reptilian overlords secretly ruling humanity (which is what The Unseen Empire is; it's straight from the writings of David Icke), you're gonna want to be as credible as possible.
Scar Symmetry can write a melodic hook, and they can write a crunching death metal riff; they just need to choose which one they prefer to focus on, as they're frequently working against themselves here.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The AnomalyKjellgren, Harry Nilsson, Henrik Ohlsson | Scar Symmetry | Play | 03:50 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 2 | Illuminoid Dream SequenceKjellgren, Harry Nilsson, Henrik Ohlsson | Scar Symmetry | Play | 05:00 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 3 | Extinction MantraKjellgren, Harry Nilsson, Henrik Ohlsson | Scar Symmetry | Play | 05:31 | 12 MB | 0 MB |
| 4 | Domination AgendaKjellgren, Harry Nilsson, Henrik Ohlsson | Scar Symmetry | Play | 04:00 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 5 | AstronomiconKjellgren, Harry Nilsson, Henrik Ohlsson | Scar Symmetry | Play | 04:03 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 6 | Rise of the Reptilian RegimeKjellgren, Harry Nilsson, Henrik Ohlsson | Scar Symmetry | Play | 04:24 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 7 | The Draconian ArrivalKjellgren, Harry Nilsson, Henrik Ohlsson | Scar Symmetry | Play | 05:25 | 12 MB | 0 MB |
| 8 | Alpha and OmegaKjellgren, Harry Nilsson, Henrik Ohlsson | Scar Symmetry | Play | 05:02 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 9 | Seers Of The Schaton | Scar Symmetry | Play | 05:51 | 13 MB | 0 MB |
| 43 mins | 99 MB | |||||
| 0 mins | 0 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robert Karlsson | Group Member, Vocals |
| 2 | Kjellgren | Composer, Lead |
| 3 | Jonas Kjellgren | Group Member, Guitar, Mixing, Producer |
| 4 | Colin Marks | Artwork |
| 5 | Harry Nilsson | Composer, Lead |
| 6 | Per Nilsson | Group Member, Guitar, Producer |
| 7 | Henrik Ohlsson | Composer, Drums, Group Member |
| 8 | Lars Palmqvist | Group Member, Vocals |
| 9 | Plec | Mastering |
| 10 | Scar Symmetry | Primary Artist |
| 11 | Kenneth Seil | Bass, Group Member |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |