Album Release: April 15, 2011 (in Europe) and May 17, 2011 (in the United States)
Melodic Death Metal is a tricky genre of music to tackle. A band has to make sure it is brutal enough to give the headbangers something to rock out to while also making sure it has enough melody to get non-metal heads singing along to their tunes. Scar Symmetry has been around long enough to have mastered this craft, but over the course of several albums, they have gotten repetitive and stale. Thankfully on “The Unseen Empire,” Scar Symmetry seems rejuvenated; playing with more energy than they have in years past.
While the rhythm section of the band, which features Kenneth Seil on bass guitar and Henrik Ohlsson on drums, is nothing to write home about, they do keep a solid beat and never overpower the guitars or the vocals. Ohlsson does an adequate enough job putting fills in all the right places but he does nothing to separate him from other hard rock drummers. The album could also benefit from a few stand out bass lines, which would make the album more complex and give the listeners something new to listen out for.
The guitars on the album, played by Per Nilsson and Jonas Kjellgren, show great talent and know when to be technical and when to be melodic. They keep the album fresh by not always playing the same type of guitar lines. For instance, opener, “The Anomaly,” starts out with a punk rock riff and the song “Seers of the Eschaton,” hits one over the head with a highly technical guitar part. Nilsson and Kjellgren also play keyboards on the album, which adds more musical depth to some of the songs (ex: “The Draconian Arrival”). Both guitarists are highly skilled players but like the drumming, they do nothing that really separates them from the pack.
Vocally, Scar Symmetry employs two vocalists; Roberth Karlsson for the death metal growling and Lars Palmqvist for the actual singing. Karlsson sounds like most death metal growlers; he mostly has a deep rumble growl going and the lyrics are pretty inaudible. On the other hand, Palmqvist stands out from Karlsson with his beautiful baritone voice. Although his voice is not really unique (he sounds like many power metal band vocalists), his sense of melody is quite sharp and his vocals on most of the songs are quite catchy. Sometimes, Karlsson is so out-shined by Palmqvist (see closer “Alpha and Omega”) that one has to wonder if the band would be better off with no harsh vocals and just having Palmqvist sing cleans. However, this music is melodic death metal and it would not be if it were not for Karlsson’s growling.
“The Unseen Empire” is neither spectacular or dismal; it is just a fun catchy album that one cannot help but like. While nothing makes the band sound unique, they have truly mastered their style of music and can hold their own against any other melodic death metal band.
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