Scar Symmetry
Pitch Black Progress
Nuclear Blast
The Lon Chaney of Swedish metal!
Mere months after Symmetric in Design hit the shelves in North America comes the follow-up, which confidently improves on an excellent debut. Much was made about Scar Symmetry’s refreshing take on the oft-overdone Gothenburg sound on the last record (not to mention plenty of comparisons to Soilwork), and Pitch Black Progress not only has the group of former journeyman musicians staking out a niche in the Swedish metal landscape that’s all their own, but quite frankly, leaves Soilwork’s Stabbing the Drama choking on their dust.
The duo of guitarists Jonas Kjellgren and Per Nilsson emerge as formidable, heading in a similar crunchy-riff direction as many of their Swedish peers have, but adding enough complexity, harmony and flash to hold our interest. The band’s trump card remains vocalist Christian Ålvestam, who tops his versatile work on Symmetric with an astonishing, multifaceted performance. He doesn’t just single-handedly do the good cop/bad cop thing—he does the whole damn squadron, from authoritative death grunts to black metal screeches, hardcore bellows, a nifty Devin Townsend homage, and his trademark emotional (but never emo) clean singing voice. “Abstracted” and “Mind Machine” are fine examples of the album’s good balance of melody and aggression, but it’s “The Kaleidoscopic God” that will have you reaching for the repeat button, a thrilling slice of prog insanity that begins as a taut death/black hybrid, then veers to a chorus that smacks of Dredg (dig that falsetto!), an orchestral passage, and an inexplicable Voivod groove breakdown. —Adrien Begrand
