Holographic Universe

Scar Symmetry, a Swedish melodic death metal band who is famous for having Christian Älvestam. That's about it, if we're being honest. Prior to listening to this album for a review two years ago, I had only heard "Morphogenesis", a couple Solution .45 songs from their debut that I decently enjoyed but can't remember, and "A Ringside Seat to Human Tragedy", a bonus track off Disarmonia Mundi's 2006 album, Mindtricks. Going back to the start of that sentence, I'm listening to this album for the second time front to back now. I won't hide my feelings about it: I wasn't really sold then, and I'm not sold now. This is one of the few times where I'd say the people who gave this album (Their most popular and supposedly best effort) a high rating are on some sort of drug that would probably make me fall back in love with Amaranthe and French kiss a quantum computer. If it wasn't for Älvestam, this band wouldn't have half of their fanbase past or present, and they wouldn't be anything even close to remarkable. I just don't care for this album whatsoever, and it makes me want to apologize to Epsilon (Blood Stain Child) for being so harsh, as the band actually felt like they were being honest with that album. I haven't listened to anything prior to this album or since, but this feels like a more modern, less talented Soilwork taken to the logical, yet somewhat natural extremes. Seriously, the majority of the 'riffing' is just really boring, chugging tech death, yet I'd somehow still say that it all falls more along the lines of melodic metal with growls slapped on. Even the worst Amaranthe album had more riffs than this, and if the album didn't have half the growls it does, I genuinely don't think Metallum would classify it as metal. Would I? Sure, but it's so fucking generically core that it's saddening to think about. The album, and by extension, the band has potential, but they played to their biggest strength and biggest flaw far too often, yet far too safely: Clean choruses that make for easy singles. Unlike Soilwork, which at least had one song on most of their albums (If not all), that isn't the case for even one song here. Holographic Universe is a sterile, saccharine, poppy conclusion to the Gothenburg sound that's representative of the state of melodeath starting in the mid to late 2000s, and I hate saying that because it's not all bad. I'd say that pound for pound, it's just as mid as Omnium Gatherum, if not a bit more. What's truly insulting is that their homepage says that the band is "Progressive Melodic Death Metal since 2004"- There is nothing progressive about Holographic Universe, and the foundation of melodic death metal is somewhat flimsy, but arguably passable. It's formulaic tech death that centers around its clean choruses, even when those clean choruses don't fit the rest of the song. That isn't to say that that's every song, but there are quite a few where that's the case.

Now that I've gotten all of that vitriol out of the way, let's dissect each element.

The guitarwork is mid at best, with only the solos shining amongst a sea of down-tuned metalcore/tech death chugging. Even though Metallum also lists groove metal as a subgenre for them, that style only shines in any meaningful way in three or so songs. The tone is somewhat scratchy and raw, yet it's also far too modern, and I just don't like it aside from when the riffing gets more melodic. The solos are the obvious exception there, sounding like high pitched prog metal solos that are actually, again, pretty damn good. The problem is that even though they're rather technical and all do hit different notes and whatnot each time, fuck me do they sound same-y as all hell. That being said, they're a bright spot for the album. Oh yeah, there's also one song with acoustic parts and one song with clean guitar parts. Normally, I fucking love those and are a sucker for them. I genuinely have nothing to comment on about them. They simply exist.

Due to the production and mixing being rather modern, loud, and focused on just boosting the front end, the bass gets lost in the mix. This is probably also the fault of the guitars being standard tuned seven-strings that primarily focused on the bottom three strings, so I can't fault the engineers all too much. They worked with what they could, and for all intents and purposes, I think the production and mixing is bang-on otherwise. Is it a bit cluttered and in your face? Yes, but it works well for the style. When you can hear the bass (Which is generally just when the distorted guitars aren't playing), it sounds pretty fucking good. It has a surprisingly smooth tone, and I wish we could hear it more often. The drumkit sounds fucking fantastic though, with it sounding natural, yet also having a nice piercing punchiness to it. It's weird to think that there isn't seemingly much compression on the kit, yet it sounds more like metal drums than rock drums. The drums are pretty much perfect in terms of sound on the album, and thankfully, the playing is pretty damn good too. I remembered it much more than I remembered the guitarwork.

You would think the vocals would be the make or break on this album: The cleans are extremely poppy, so that's generally a point of contention. I'd say Älvestam did a pretty damn good job here, with the vocals and keyboards easily being what carried the album to decent heights for me. His harsh vocals primarily consist of shout-like growls, though he occasionally goes down to the gurgles of standard death metal. While the latter usually isn't my thing, I'd say it's pretty damn good here. Maybe it's just because I felt like going back to literally anything else about a third of the way through the album, but hey, I enjoyed them here. Meanwhile, yeah, his clean vocals are pretty fucking good and pretty fucking poppy. The higher end of his register is like Strid on crack or Skynet, and for most intents and purposes, it works pretty well. That being said, I prefer the almost operatic and theatric tone of Dave Hunt's more. The lower end of his register has the same tone, and cadence of Lajon Witherspoon from Sevendust, which I actually wish was utilized more, especially since it's the higher end that's always used for the clean choruses in pretty much the same key every time. It has a much-needed timbre that the higher end of his register simply lacks, which only adds to just how 'modern metal' the album feels. The clean choruses are usually pretty good, but starting with the title track, I noticed them not only feeling unnecessary, but that they also didn't link up with the hooks before and verses after well at all. The clean choruses, and clean vocals as a whole, are a massive crutch for the band, and I'd argue that it's even more egregious than Soilwork here.

As for the songs, I quite like the first four. "Morphogenesis" is the best of the bunch, but it's also the most representative of everything that Holographic Universe is. It makes sense why this was chosen as the opener and the lead single: It's the most streamlined, and it's Holographic Universe executed its best. "Timewave Zero" is what happens when you do a Sevendust song in the style of Amaranthe. I'd actually prefer it without the one harsh verse, as it feels completely out of place, but it doesn't ruin the song. "Quantumleaper" actually has does groove well, but it straddles the line of mediocrity. Thankfully, there's more melody and good writing here than on the majority of the album. "Artificial Sun Projection" has an awesome riff, and the chorus has a bit of a power metal flair to it. It's pretty damn good, but that's where the album flatlines into becoming simply passable for a long time. "Prism and Gate" is actually pretty cool too, with the Amaranthe-styled chorus actually being a good thing here.

The title track feels like actual progressive melodic death metal/tech death, but it falls apart with the clean choruses. I wish the beginning was a short instrumental interlude to the two or so minute mark of what we got, where it would then start a new song. That would've been pretty fucking awesome, and it would've shaken things up for a little bit, especially since the first two minutes is pretty goddamn interesting and different. "The Three-Dimensional Shadow" is really fucking cool progressive tech death aside from the clean choruses, though the subdued clean vocals in the hooks are absolutely perfect. Everything else is completely mediocre and sounds the same, and I feel like I like just over half of the album, since I've split on the last two. That being said, I'm still rating this lower than 50% because not only do I find that the rest of the songs add next to nothing, but I find there to be a fundamental flaw with the individual elements themselves as well.

Unfortunately, this album is simply pretentious, especially with the barebones application of a science-fiction type of theme. The coolest thing you'll get from it is the album's artwork, which is admittedly awesome. That being said, I'm not giving them any brownie points for a nice cover. That being said, I call Holographic Universe pretentious because it pretends to do a lot and isn't nearly as technical or varied as it wants you to think it is. Everything follows a set structure, even moreso than the worst Soilwork album. At least something like Sworn to a Great Divide tried different sounds with "The Pittsburgh Syndrome" and "Light Discovering Darkness". Holographic Universe follows the same general sound for every song, with every song also having the same clean chorus over and over (Occasionally the verses have clean vocals instead of harsh vocals, but that's the most variety there is), and after two verses and two choruses, they change key(?) rather abruptly without much cohesion to make you think that the song's veered off in a different direction, when it's really just going into a high-pitched solo that's in the same key every time, only to then transition back just as choppily as before with a verse and a chorus before ending the song with a chord that's sustained for a bar. There's never a fadeout, there's never any sort of different. There's never a song that starts with a slow build, save for the title track. That isn't progressive. I would argue that Periphery is more along the lines of true progressive metal than Scar Symmetry (Though in fairness, I quite like Periphery- I'm willing to admit my bias). Every song on this album is cookie cutter and formulaic, and aside from Älvestam's vocals, it completely lacks personality. It feels like Skynet writing an album about the dangers of Skynet, but not really. While the keyboards are pretty good, they don't see much use outside of "Morphogenesis" and the title track. Even Soilwork, Blood Stain Child, and Dark Tranquillity used their keyboardists to their fullest extent. Aside from "Morphogenesis", I doubt I'll ever be listening to any of this again.

It all ends with me asking myself: "Why listen to Scar Symmetry?". I could listen to Soilwork if I want that type of structure or melodic death metal- They even have good groove metal here and there. I could listen to Devildriver, Pantera, or even Hellyeah if I wanted better groove metal too. Then again, I'd argue that even Five Finger Death Punch does groove metal better, and they're fucking awful. I could listen to Sevendust, as the hard rock style and timbre of Witherspoon's vocals feel more warm and authentic. I could listen to Amaranthe if I want more variety and cheesiness. Would I? No, not really, but I could. I could listen to Anaal Nathrakh if I wanted the soaring highs of Hunts vocals along with absolutely insane harsh vocals with an incredible range. I could listen to Epsilon by Blood Stain Child, as it does melodic metal-styled melodeath much more honestly and pleasantly, as the majority of it isn't so saccharine. All of these examples feel far more genuine and identifiable than Holographic Universe. Holographic Universe is representative of every detractor of melodeath's view of the downfall and modernization of the melodic death metal and Gothenburg sounds. If you like this, that's fine. I wish I could, as melodic death metal is my favorite subgenre. I wish I could celebrate all the different facets of it. But this just sounds like a calculated amalgamation of every facet of melodic death metal without any of the soul, and unlike something like Nickelback where I can respect the unfortunately soulless and corporate genius of it, this isn't anything that's even close to interesting or noteworthy. Chad Kroeger at least developed an understanding of the industry and mainstream audience and wrote the band's music to pander to it. Scar Symmetry just mashed together the standard melodeath fare. It's unsurprising that it never even blew up all too much in the melodic death metal circles either- Unremarkable is the very best adjective I can describe Holographic Universe as. Does the band have potential? Sure, but it's fucking wasted, as any good or interesting ideas are thrown out for the same repetitive formula. So this review ends with me asking you: "Why listen to Scar Symmetry?". If you find any satisfactory answers, then good for you- And I mean that. Because if nothing else, that means you did what I couldn't, and I can be happy for you for enjoying something that I find little enjoyment in.

Songs To Recommend: "Morphogenesis", "Timewave Zero", "Artificial Sun Projection", "Prism and Gate", "Holographic Universe"
Songs To Avoid: "The Missing Coordinates", "Ghost Prototype I (Measurement of Thought)", "Fear Catalyst", "Trapezoid", "Ghost Prototype II (Deus Ex Machina)"