Shortly after acclaimed vocalist Christian Alvestam announced that he was departing from Scar Symmetry due to “creative differences,” many fans assumed the band was as good as gone. However, just as quickly as Alvestam left the remaining band members declared that they had found two separate vocalists to fill in the blank spot. It’s been a little over a year since “Holographic Universe” was released and we’re already being given “Dark Matter Dimensions,” the first album with the new front men (now available on the band’s MySpace). Is the band still in top form with two new members? Matt, Greg and Michael weigh in.
Matt’s Thoughts
I have to be frank, I’m really not too favorable towards bands that go for low grunt or growl vocal styles; it just sounds silly when used as a backbone for the sound. That said, whenever a band decides to add some actual singing to match or even soar over the aforementioned vocals it can be tough to complain. This album by Scar Symmetry manages to do a fairly good job at accomplishing this, and it isn’t too bad. Though I’ve given their other material a shot, “Holographic Universe” was the only one that I returned for more listenings. “Dark Matter Dimensions” is, fortunately for me, a fair successor to it. Admittedly some of the songs are easier to like than others, but I’d say this is close to or as good as “Holographic Universe.” If you’re like me and are still on-the-fence towards the more elaborate metal genres, then this release might be worth a shot.
Greg’s Thoughts
Not many bands have worked their magic on me like Scar Symmetry. As far as I’m concerned, their first three albums were all great and just varied enough from each other to avoid sounded redundant. The group’s latest, “Dark Matter Dimensions,” however, finds itself in a bit of a conflicted scenario. This conflict mostly comes out of it sounding a lot like what we’ve previously been given. Granted, if you dug the band’s other albums this isn’t necessarily a bad thing and this proved to be a very enjoyable album, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want a little progression. The two new vocalists do a good enough job replacing Christian, though even together they can’t match his superior vocals. I’m hoping that this album was meant mostly to give an idea of what the new vocalists could accomplish, because this feels more like a “let’s see how we can re-do our previous material” scenario than a release of completely new songs. Overall though, if you enjoyed what the band have put out in the past and don’t mind this sounding like a re-hash (for lack of a better word) then it should be worth a purchase.
Michael’s Thoughts
Where do I begin with these guys? If there’s anything I could use to describe Scar Symmetry it would be that they’re amazing at first, but the more you listen the more you find the shortcomings. On a positive note, the lowest the band has hit thus far is fair; nothing they’ve released has really been rotten. And now we’re given “Dark Matter Dimensions,” the first album with Christian’s two heirs which turns out to be very much like the previous material except for one (major) difference: the shortcomings are abundantly clear from the get-go. Fortunately, we still don’t have any bad stuff present here, though some parts did scream “filler” to me. This album’s highlight for me was “A Parenthesis in Eternity,” which has an intro eerily similar to the In Flames title track off “Come Clarity” (and do I hear a bit of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” in there too?). The two new vocalists, who alternate clean and harsh singing, aren’t half bad; but I don’t think we’ll see anyone even match Christian. One good thing does come out of this though: the guitarists finally have some shining moments. Since the vocals stood out so much on previous Scar Symmetry albums it was tough to really appreciate the guitars. Here, however, this is a different case and the mixing winds up sounding a bit more balanced. Stylistically and overall, this album is all around its predecessors; rising above them one minute and falling below them the next. Essentially, the progression is nonexistent, so the album does feel a bit cheap for one who wants a bit of change. All told, this is a pretty good album that’s very fun to listen to, but in the long run, I don’t see it leaving much behind.
