Scar Symmetry is a heavy metal band from Sweden, formed in 2004 by Per Nilsson, Henrik Ohlsson, Jonas Kjellgren, Christian Älvestam and Kenneth Seil. Their music was primarily a Melodic Death Metal / Power Metal fusion in the band's early days. Later releases added elements of Progressive Metal and Groove Metal in some of their songs. The band became very notable in its early days thanks to Christian's ability to perform both clean vocals and death growls. Christian was fired from the band in 2008 over disagreements. He was replaced by two vocalists, Lars Palmqvist (clean vocals) and Roberth Karlsson (harsh vocals).
Scar Symmetry has released 7 albums since its formation, and is currently working on a trilogy of concept albums called The Singularity.
Discography:
- Symmetric In Design (2005)
- Pitch Black Progress (2006)
- Holographic Universe (2008)
- Dark Matter Dimensions (2009)
- The Unseen Empire (2011)
- The Singularity (Phase I: Neohumanity) (2014)
- The Singularity (Phase II: Xenotaph) (2023)
Current Band Members:
- Per Nilsson - guitar, backing (and occasional co-lead) vocals
- Roberth Karlsson - harsh vocals
- Lars Palmqvist - clean vocals
- Lawrence Dinamarca - drums
- Stephen Platt - guitar, backing vocals
Former Touring Members:
- Fredrik Groth - rhythm guitar, bass
- Andreas Silén - bass
- Morgan Reid - guitar, backing vocals
Former Band Members:
- Christian Älvestam - vocals
- Jonas Kjellgren - rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Kenneth Seil - bass, backing vocals
- Andreas Holma - bass, backing vocals
- Henrik Ohlsson - drums
- Benjamin Ellis - guitar, backing vocals
Count all those few remaining days, wasting away. Your demise, shows you will be as tropes in rain, lost to the void.
- Audience Participation Song: "The Illusionist", "Mind Machine" and "Morphogenesis".
- Bookends:
- The Singularity (Phase I: Neohumanity) starts and ends with the same vocal melody.
- The first track ("Chrononautilus") and the final track ("Xenotaph") of The Singularity (Phase II: Xenotaph) both share a musical motif. This motif is also heard in The Singularity (Phase I: Neohumanity) on "Technocalyptic Cybergeddon".
- Careful with That Axe: While Lars Palmqvist normally provides the clean vocals to Roberth Karlsson's growls, he will also throw in some black metal-esque shrieks here and there.
- Concept Album: They really like doing these.
- Holographic Universe is based on interpretations of Michael Talbot's book The Holographic Universe, and explores intersections between Eastern mysticism and quantum mechanics.
- Dark Matter Dimensions, regarding Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- The Unseen Empire is themed around conspiracy theories.
- In early 2014 they announced they were working on a trilogy of concept albums, called The Singularity. The first instalment, The Singularity (Phase I: Neohumanity) was released that same year. The second instalment, The Singularity (Phase II: Xenotaph) was released in 2023.
- Darker and Edgier:
- Dark Matter Dimensions and The Unseen Empire as a whole, compared to Holographic Universe.
- The title track of Pitch Black Progress is much heavier than the rest of the album, and has no clean vocals.
- "Mechanical Soul Cybernetics" is much heavier than the rest of Dark Matter Dimensions. It was recorded with 8 string guitars, and clean vocalist Lars Palmqvist's voice is heavily distorted using studio effects.
- Epic Rocking:
- "The Kaleidoscopic God" (7:09) from Pitch Black Progress.
- "Holographic Universe" (9:05) and "Ghost Prototype II (Deus Ex Machina)" (6:03) from Holographic Universe.
- "Neohuman" (8:43), "Cryonic Harvest" (6:12) and "Technocalyptic Cybergeddon" (10:12) from The Singularity (Phase I: Neohumanity).
- "Altergeist" (6:12) and "Xenotaph" (7:51) from The Singularity (Phase II: Xenotaph).
- Groove Metal / Djent: Some of their songs possess elements of the genre. One of the best examples is the opening riff of "Illuminoid Dream Sequence".
- I Am the Band: Per and Henrik - Per writes all the music whilst Henrik writes all the lyrics. Per also produced, mixed and mastered the first two albums of the Singularity trilogy, played much of the keyboard parts on the band's albums (including all the parts on the first two albums of the Singularity trilogy) and played all the bass parts on The Singularity (Phase II: Xenotaph).
- In the earlier days of the band, Per and Jonas would write the music together while Henrik would write the lyrics. Christian would contribute musically and lyrically, but not much. This explains why the band's music didn't massively change after Christian's departure, besides going for a heavier and more straightforward approach.
- Irony: Jonas Kjellgren, while a very technical player, had a dirty, aggressive, and raw blues-shred style that stood in contrast to Per's cleaner and more relaxed jazz fusion style. His replacement wound up having a style that was extremely similar to Per's.
- Lead Drummer: While he doesn't play any solos or do any vocals in Scar Symmetry, Henrik is the band's sole lyricist.
- Leitmotif: There's one in the Singularity trilogy. "Technocalyptic Cybergeddon" from The Singularity (Phase I: Neohumanity), "Chrononautilus" from The Singularity (Phase II: Xenotaph) and "Xenotaph" from The Singularity (Phase II: Xenotaph) all share a musical motif.
- Lighter and Softer:
- Holographic Universe is this compared to their albums before and since, containing more clean vocals and more polished production, as well as less death metal elements. According to Per, this was not their intended direction and they deliberately went for a heavier approach after.
- Longest Song Goes Last:
- "The Eleventh Sphere" is the longest song on Symmetric In Design, and it's also the final song on the album.
- "Technocalyptic Cybergeddon", the longest song the band's released to date, is the closing track of The Singularity (Phase I: Neohumanity).
- The Singularity (Phase II: Xenotaph) closes with the 7:51 "Xenotaph".
- Man of a Thousand Voices: Christian Alvestam has gained considerable attention from metalheads due to his exceptional vocal range, which ranges from a soaring-high operatic voice to deep, monstrous growling akin to Chris Barnes. He also does spoken word passages in many songs, the occasional Yarling, and makes use of a few other vocal techniques. Some fans even find his normal speaking voice as awesome to listen to as his singing, though clips of him speaking are rather rare to come by.
- Melodic Death Metal: They're often considered as being a Melodic Death Metal band, despite their other major influences from power metal and progressive metal.
- Metal Scream: Alvestam and Karlsson both utilize a Type 2, while Palmqvist will throw in a Type 3 here and there as a counterpoint to Karlsson's low growls.
- New Sound Album:
- When Christian was with the band, all 3 albums with him sounded different. Symmetric In Design was much rawer and less power metal influenced than most of the band's work, and Christian used a much more diverse growl range. Pitch Black Progress had more polished production and more complex songs, as well as a bit more power metal. Holographic Universe was much more melodic with more elements of progressive metal, less growls, high-quality production and Christian had pulled his clean vocal range up an octave.
- The first two albums after Christian's departure had a much more traditional melodic death metal approach, but still retained some of the progressive elements from Holographic Universe.
- The Singularity trilogy marked a change in sound again. The band brought back the progressive elements from Pitch Black Progress and Holographic Universe and expanded on them. The power metal elements of earlier albums are also much less present.
- Power Metal: The other major component of their sound in the earlier years, besides Melodic Death Metal.
- Progressive Metal: They started venturing into this territory on Pitch Black Progress and Holographic Universe. These elements were scaled back for Dark Matter Dimensions and The Unseen Empire. The Singularity (Phase I: Neohumanity)'' not only brought them back, but also made them a defining part of the band's sound.
- Reptilian Conspiracy: "Rise Of The Reptilian Regime" is about this.
- Signature Style: Deep, heavy Melodic Death Metal with complex, angular riffs, string-bending grooves, smooth, fusionesque shredding, Power Metal touches and highly nuanced Soprano and Gravel vocals.
- Soprano and Gravel: Nearly all Scar Symmetry songs feature a striking contrast between guttural growled vocals and clean vocals. Christian Alvestam handled them himself both in studio and live but had problems with the cleans live, which is widely thought to be one of the main reasons he was let go. Typically, Roberth handles the harshes and Lars handles the cleans. They do occasionally switch up sometimes, especially in live performances, and Per contributes his own clean vocals too.
- Technician Versus Performer: Per Nilsson (technician) and Jonas Kjellgren (performer) while the latter was in the band. Per was the clean fusion player with a style heavily based around smooth legato, horn-like bends, and extended tapping runs, while Jonas was the dirty blues shredder with an aggressive and chaotic playing style.
- Technobabble: The bands lyrics can often venture into this, due to Henrik's love of sci-fi themes.
- "I am wave, and lepton, the eerie paradox!" from "Quantumleaper".
- The Singularity trilogy has this in spades. You'd expect that, though, considering the storyline is centred around transhumanism.
- Vocal Dissonance: Christian is a particularly extreme example of this, particularly as his range expanded over the years. His growls aren't too jarring, but tenor cleans do not match his gruff bald/beard look at all, especially considering that his range only got higher after he left while he visibly aged. His harsh and clean vocals nowadays are so unalike in every conceivable way that can be easy to forget they are sung by the same person. His normal speaking voice contrasts both, being a mellow countertenor.
- Vocal Evolution: Lars's clean vocals have noticeably improved since the Dark Matter Dimensions era.
- At first, Per only sung backing vocals live. He then started doing them in the studio after Christian's departure. He now sings both lead and backing vocals in the studio and live!
- Vocal Tag Team: Since the departure of Älvestam, the harsh and clean vocals have been handled by two singers. They were apparently planning to do this even while Christian was in the band, however, as he hated touring and was apparently quite inconsistent live.
