I like In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Arch Enemy…well I like melodic death metal, so is was kind of hard not to like this album, even if it sounds a lot like Soilwork, and it doesn’t bring anything new to the melodic death metal movement.
Scar Symmetry is one of those bands conformed by many members of other know bands like Carnal Force, Theory in Practice and Incapacity, just to name a few of the projects some of these men have collaborated with previously to Scar Symmetry.
I know I said that there was nothing new in Pitch Black Progress, well its true to a certain point, this album does sounds awfully familiar to Soilwork and Disarmonia Mundi (another Speed Strid project), but the level of technicality in every song is way superior to the previous bands I mention; the musicianship and the vocals are better placed and leveled with the different tunes the band tries to put together.
The two biggest assets in Pitch Black Progress have to be the vocals by Christian Älvestam, he sounds deep and evil when he has to and melodic and soft when the clean parts required him to. The other great thing in this album is the guitars, the solos and the killer riffs placed everywhere.
Is more than obvious that Scar Symmetry is not reinventing melodic death metal, they are just perfecting it, like the Japanese do with every thing that gets to their shores. The album is melodic, is catchy and has some great songs, it does lack of aggressiveness, something the band achieve in a better way with their previous and first ever release Symmetric In Design.
Pitch Black Progress is a good album, but it’s just too… ordinary inside the rainbow of modern melodic death/Gothenburg bands out there at this time; perhaps the band should look for a more “unique” sound, so that when you listen to it for the first time don’t immediately ask yourself “Another Soilwork album!”
Songs to listen to: Pitch Black Progress, in this song the growls dominate, Älvestam sounds like Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth) and there are no clean vocal parts; the guitars are sharp and heavy as hell.
The Kaleidoscopic God, great mix of standard death metal vocals and a more “radio friendly” chorus; the song is fast with a couple of astonishing solos, and some nice progressive sounds placed in the mix.
Retaliator, ok this song sounds just like Soilwork, but better more technical, and with better guitars, I guess this song will prove my point, very good band but they sound like some others you have probably heard in the past. Still if you are a melodic death metal fan you should get this album instead of the new one by Soilwork.
