 
Scar Symmetry are one of the finest melodic death
metal bands on the scene today! This new release
brings their album count up to 5; the styles between
each of the albums take not drastic changes but
very slight changes with each which is normal
as a band progresses and experiments with ways
of writing. A massive line up change between “Holographic
Universe” and “Dark Matter Dimensions”
did occur with the long term vocalist leaving
and them having to bring in 2 to replace him;
this could have killed them if not thought about
correctly but with this new release it’s
clear that they have pulled it off.
“The Unseen Empire” just takes what
they’ve done and with the added overlapping
abilities of having 2 vocalists they really add
some extra depth and texture in here; I feel certain
elements of power metal with the new clean vocalist,
mixed in amongst the crunch and melodic atmosphere
produced with the guitar work. The first track
“The Anomaly” is reminiscent of old
school favourite “The illusionist”
being very similar indeed, the clean vocals and
the lyrics are just fantastic I think the new
vocalist has really stepped up to the standard
of the old vocalist and made his stamp on the
sound.
The new vocals however are a lot more of the clean
than screaming, for the fans of the more originally
really heavy Scar Symmetry fans the tracks on
the album for you are “Illuminoid Dream
Sequence”, “Extinction Mantra”
and “Seers of the Schaton”; I say
these 3 for the music also because they do still
have a fair bit of clean vocals in there but the
way they drop with the screaming vocals over the
top is something of sheer talent.
The way this album flows with its Sci-fi theme
(Which is wonderful) makes it feel like an interstellar
journey not even with the lyrics because it’s
not mentioned in there but the feel and little
keyboard lines gives it the feel. The first few
songs are really heavy then and it journeys around
the rest of the album till its conclusion. They
need to think about their next release because
they are at risk of going over things that they
have done before and repeating previous efforts
but this album is a terrific piece of work.
5/5
Review by James Webb
|
