Dark Matter Dimensions

Scar Symmetry; one of the few melodeath bands that's actually doing something unique with their sound. Rockin' riffs, groovy drums, and a fantastic mix of clean singing and insanely deep growls was just the tip of the iceberg that is Scar Symmetry's fantastic music. Then Christian Alvestam left the band in August 2008, and this caused much controversey. Not only this, but several videos surfaced on the internet of the two new singers playing some of the Alvestam-era material, which only fueled the skepticism towards the band's new singers and their ability to write material that would match (and/or come to par with) the songs that Scar Symmetry made with Christian Alvestam. I was one of the cynics, until I heard their 2009 offering, "Dark Matter Dimensions."

Stylistically, nothing has changed about this album. You get the same brand of groove and headbanging madness you saw on such albums as "Pitch Black Progress" and "Holographic Universe", along with the heavily praised guitar work of Per Nilsson and Jonas Kjellgren. Each song is easily distinguishable from one another, and they each bear their own unique song structure to keep things fresh each time around; be it a mid-paced song with plenty of groove and riffs to it ("Noumenon and Phenomenon", "The Consciousness Eaters") or an incredibly fast song with kick-you-in-your-teeth drumming ("Nonhuman Era", "Pariah"). Depending on what your expectations are, this can be either good or bad. If you expected Scar Symmetry to pull off something you'd never seen them do before, then this might be bad. But if you don't care and you just wanna hear some decent music, then this is by far a very good thing.

Now to discuss the main point of controversey that this album has managed to spawn; the vocals (or, more aptly, the vocalists themselves). Admittedly, Lars and Roberth don't exactly match up to the range, tone and power that we became acustomed to when Scar Symmetry had Christian Alvestam, but they certainly fit the bill. Lars, the clean singer, is a bit more of a baritone singer and doesn't exactly have Christian's range. Of course, that doesn't mean his overall tone won't easily fit in with the material on this album like a key put into it's proper lock. Robeth's growls are actually, in my opinion, on par with those of Christian, and I'd go so far as to say he just might be better at it than Chrisitan is (to completely annihilate some taboo amongst the Scar Symmetry fanbase). To sum it up, the new vocalists are not of Christian Alvestam's caliber, but they are fantastic at their repsective roles.

"Dark Matter Dimensions", being an album produced by Jonas Kjellgren, has some pretty nifty mixing and production quality to it. It's clean to the degree that "Holographic Universe" was, but a bit dirtier mixing to add that magical pinch of rockin' attitude to it. This is especially noticeable in the drum mixing (and as a side note, Henrik's grooves and beats on this album count as Grade-A stuff), which is clean and articulate yet fairly rough at the same time, particularly in the snare drum.

All in all, the skepticism this album created is unjustiable. The material is the same great stuff you'd expect from Scar Symmetry, the guitar work is phenomenal (everyone bow down and hail to the god himself, Per Nilsson), and above all, THE VOCALS DIDN'T SUCK. Anyone who thinks otherwise either hasn't bothered to hear the new album or is just too hard-headed to try something outside of their shells created by the Alvestam-era Scar Symmetry albums. This album goes on my "buy or die" list big time.