The Unseen Empire

Scar Symmetry may not have helped invent the "Gothenburg sound" of death metal, but they've done more to refine and reinvent it than possibly any other band. They're one of those bands that take just about everything I like in metal (melodeath metal, power metal, and progressive metal in this case) and throw it in a blender. For five albums they have somehow managed to combine technically ridiculous guitar riffs and rhythms, almost pop-level melodies, and plenty of brutality. Similarly contrasting is their brilliant blend of clean vocals and death grunts, formerly both done by Christian Älvestam, a vocalist so talented it took two people to replace him. It's far from seamless--the craziness and dissonance are part of their souund--but it works, gloriously.

The Unseen Empire is their latest release from earlier this year. I've been enjoying it just about nonstop ever since. I'm told it's a concept album about reptilian overlords taking over the world, which is pretty much standard Scar Symmetry fare. This album really takes all the disparate elements of Scar Symmetry's sound--their melody, their crazy brutality, and their technicality, to further extremes.

Nowhere is this better seen than in the second track "Illuminoid Dream Sequence" (by the way, Scar Symmetry has possibly the best song titles I've ever seen). Starting off with a slightly industrial synth intro, the drums and guitar both slowly build an atmosphere of tension. This is quickly exploded by the highly melodic chorus riff, which almost sounds like random notes being played, only they fit together perfectly. If that's not progressive metal, I don't know what is. The band's two vocalists trade off, with Lars Palmqvist singing a narrative in the verses and Roberth Karlsson doing the voices of the demonic forces in the dream. The bridge of the song features some of the band's most ridiculous shredding ever, making the subsequent solo seem tame by comparison. Overall it's one of my favorite secular songs ever--probably top 5. Highly worth checking out even if you pass up the rest of the album.

But this would be a grave mistake, because then you'll be unprepared for the takeover of our reptilian overlords! But seriously, the rest of the album is generally cool as well. It's hard to make sweeping statements about the album beyond what I've already done, so I'll just mention some standout tracks. The third track "Extinction Mantra" slows down somewhat, with the guitar still managing to do plenty of acrobatics over the plodding drum beat. The highlight of the song is the distinctive start-stop chorus riff, which almost simulates the track skipping. "Seers of the Eschaton", on the other hand, is fast and brutal, with the rhythm of the guitar chugging and blindingly fast double-bass drumming clashing most interestingly. "Astronomicon" (which I swear didn't directly influence the naming of my game) is another standout that showcases SS's ability to blend all the elements of their style together. Great, precise riffing, melodic/brutal vocal contrasts, and an extremely impressive solo.

Overall, The Unseen Empire is a solid release by a solid band that easily meets the high bar set by their earlier albums while being more accessible. Highly recommend this album first if you're new to Scar Symmetry, and definitely if you're into technical bands like Periphery, Meshuggah, or Into Eternity, or just Swedish melodic death metal.

Until We Have Faces

No, sorry, I'm not writing about the book. (Wrong blog anyway) Time for a review of an album that came out early this year and has really been growing on me lately.

I often mention RED in the same sentence as Skillet and Thousand-Foot Krutch. Like their better-known contemporaries, they play a brand of "Christian metal" with excellent songwriting and generic-enough lyrics to appeal to secular audiences. They distinguish themselves with their blend of symphonic-tinged alternative metal and their vocalist's blend of sung and screamed (largely sung) vocals.

The musical and lyrical approaches of "Until We Have Faces" go hand in hand. "Feed the Machine" opens  the album with a heavily distorted, dissonant guitar riff, creating a harsh, dystopian atmosphere that is nonetheless entertaining in its deliberate ugliness. The largely distorted or screamed vocals emphasize the often draining, demanding, and futile nature of modern life. And this is a Christian album?

Next, "Faceless" addresses the loss of our true identity in Christ if we fall away from Him. Despite the overall Christian perspective of the song, I think everyone can identify with the tension in lines like "I'm not myself, feel like I'm someone else/Walled-in and faceless, so hollow inside". This tension builds on the dark world laid out in the opening track. Musically it's less nightmarish than "Feed the Machine", but still excellent aggressive, melodic alternative metal on par with anything secular bands are producing.

"Lie to Me (Denial)" deals with regret for past ways of life and the aftereffects of lies and betrayal, either from ourselves or others. Musically it's one of the better tracks, with a great, heavily symphonic chorus that exemplifies RED's current style. "Let It Burn" is somewhat slower and mellower musically, and sounds like an agonized plea to a God you want to believe is there. "Buried Beneath" turns up the volume again, and continues building the tension off the previous tracks. The lyrics deal with life crisis, breaking down, and building life on a faulty foundation.

After the anguished darkness laid out in the first five songs, the symphonic ballad "Not Alone" bursts onto the scene with the answer, a reassurance from God that "I am with you, I will carry you through it all". The beauty and positivity of the song couldn't contrast more sharply with what came just before. The first step of convincing anyone of the truth of the gospel is convincing them that sin really is a problem, and a similar setup approach is seen in this album.

And then we're right back to the dark songs. "Watch You Crawl" is sung from the perspective of none other than the devil himself, a gleeful taunt on his power to destroy us. If the whole album was inspired by the similarly-named work of C.S. Lewis, this song could have been inspired by The Screwtape Letters. "The Outside" is a response to this threat, rebuking lies we allow to drag us down. The relentless guitars and driving tempo of the song parallel the fury of our struggle with sin.

"Who We Are" is the kind of upbeat, fist-pumping ballad that would make Thousand-Foot Krutch jealous they didn't think of it. "Best Is Yet to Come", another softer song, is even more hopeful, expressing a deep hope in a glorious future that can only be explained by the concept of eternal life. This song has really been giving me hope lately. Finally, the quiet piano ballad "Hymn for the Missing" seems a bit out of place, ending the album on an uncertain note of loss, possibly of a relationship.

"Until We Have Faces" has a sharp dichotomy running through it. The first half is about the darkness, futility, and ultimately despair of life (or lifelessness) in a fallen world. The second offers a positive alternative: a relationship with Jesus Christ, which, while not without its own challenges, ultimately offers hope and an eternal promise. But this album is much more than just a gospel pitch. Songs like "Feed the Machine", "Lie to Me", and "The Outside" are excellent modern metal and deserve a listen whatever you think of the lyrics. I highly recommend this album to anyone who enjoys metal of all kinds.

We Rule the Night

I'm being terribly unjust reviewing this album. Sonic Syndicate started off as a fine melodic death metal band; Eden Fire was a very impressive and solid release from the Swedish youngsters, a modern example of the Gothenburg sound. Only Inhuman and Love and Other Disasters were less outstanding, but still passable. We Rule the Night really doesn't qualify as MDM and is a huge departure from their previous sound, with considerably more clean vocals, less heavy/furious songs, and super melodic guitars and keyboards. In short, the band sold out. However, this album is enjoyable/memorable in its own awful way as well as hilarious, so here goes.

The secret to enjoying We Rule the Night is to go into it with no expectations. Don't expect the next Eden Fire. Don't expect a Sonic Syndicate album. Don't even expect a metal album. If anything, expect a pop album with some occasional heavy guitars. Gone are the furious, churning melodeath riffs and prominent death screams of their older work. Clean vocals dominate most of the album, with harsh vocals mixed somewhere between just behind them ("Plans are for People", "Burn This City") to barely audible ("Mile Apart", "Black and Blue") and usually echo the clean vocals or are unintelligible. Similarly the heavy guitars are usually mixed pretty far down. What is left is effectively alternative metal with a heavy dose of programmed drum beats and synth melodies.

"Beauty and the Freak" pretty well sets up expectations for the album, starting with an electronic beat mixed far above the guitars. The harsh vocals are quiet and pretty much just repeat the clean vocals. But hey, it's catchy! "Revolution, Baby" is largely in the same vein. "Turn It Up" goes even farther and is effectively dance music with some heavy guitar and screams. The honest-to-goodness ballad "My Own Life" entirely drops both these elements and wholeheartedly embraces radio-friendly, album-oriented rock. It's hard to believe it's by the same group that just five years ago brought such intense, brutal melodic death metal as Misanthropic Coil to the table.

There are a few nods to their old style, though. "Burn This City" has some screams and heavy guitars in the verse, though the chorus is right back to their poppy clean vocal fare. The album closing title track has some of the best (i.e. loudest) guitar mixing in the album and is genuinely decent. "Break of Day" is the only song I would classify as truly being MDM, and only barely; the chorus is still all clean vocals, but the harsh elements are actually mixed at a good level.

Overall, this album has been a guilty pleasure of mine and a humorous interlude from real music. I really hope Sonic Syndicate comes to their senses for their next album, though, maybe applying some of this synth action to their old Eden Fire-era fury.

Once

At least until their next album/movie comes out next year, Nightwish is slightly in danger of being a one-album band to me. (Which makes it all the more impressive that they're my fifth-favorite band) But their penultimate album, Once, is impressive in its own right; it just has the misfortune of being vastly overshadowed by its successor. Musically, it's the previous step in Nightwish's gradual transition from their earlier folky style to their current theatrical bombast. Also of note, it's their last album to feature their beloved original vocalist Tarja Turunen, and a fine job she does.

Like Dark Passion Play, Once was recorded with the assistance of a full orchestra. The opening track "Dark Chest of Wonders" is possibly the quintessential Nightwish song, with roughly an even mix of pounding metal aggression and symphonic flourishes. Far from the best song on the album, but it showcases their distinctive style quite well. The rest of the album has the band drifting all over the metal/symphonic spectrum--there are some slower-paced orchestral songs, and some truly metal ones. The single track "Nemo" is a good example of this, kind of the spiritual predecessor to "Amaranth". "The Siren" has a middle-eastern sound remeniscent of "Sahara" (I'll try to stop comparing the album to Dark Passion Play now) and "Higher Than Hope" is a slow, majestic finish to the album. "Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan" ("Death Make An Artist") is both entirely orchestral, with no metal instrumentation, and sung entirely in Finnish, both fine in my book. The epic "Creek Mary's Blood" is pretty neat, contrasting quieter parts with loud, mostly instrumental sections and cool tribal chanting. The song ends with Native American musician John Two-Hawks reading a poem in Lakota; very cool indeed.

The album has fewer really metallic tracks, but they are generally good. "Planet Hell" starts off with a choir chant and string intro that builds tension that is promptly annihilated by the heavily distorted main guitar riff exploding onto the scene. It is an example of the "beauty and the beast" style of metal in two ways: Tarja's singing versus Marco's snarling, and the melody of the orchestra and keyboard versus the ultra-heavy guitar. "Dead Gardens" is similarly heavy and riff-based, but it loses points from me for its outro. Okay, playing the same three-note riff for the last 50 seconds and then ending abruptly a la Dream Theater is interesting musically, but it sounds kind of annoying, at least to me. "Romanticide" touches on a bit of alternative metal in its outro. "Wish I Had An Angel" is heavier, but also takes some cues from industrial/electronic dance music, a bit like "Bye Bye Beautiful" (sorry). Like "Planet Hell", it also features Marco's half-screaming, half-singing prominently, of which I heartily approve.

And finally, "Ghost Love Score", which like "The Poet and the Pendulum" deserves its own paragraph. The epic choir at full blast joins the orchestra for an intro that already sounds like the climax of many an epic fantasy tale. Things get even better when the band joins in, before transitioning to a quiet verse of Tarja's ethereal vocals. Then the chorus, sung by the choir and recalling epic soundtracks like "Duel of the Fates" and "Neodämmerung" from The Matrix in its bombast. After a few verse-chorus repetitions, a lesser song might call it quits. But no, not "Ghost Love Score". It transitions to a quieter, slow midsection with a nice, leisurely guitar solo, which fades out as the orchestra takes over. It slowly builds in intensity before the rest of the band comes back for several of the most epic minutes in music, period. If it were the soundtrack to a movie, it would have to feature Gandalf and Darth Vader as super saiyans, dueling for the fate of the universe on the crow's nest of the Black Pearl during a curse-powered storm for the fate of the universe as the sun expands and threatens to engulf the earth, all in the fourth level of an Inception-style dream. Since no movie nearly this awesome exists, this video comes closest to properly accompanying it. Finally, the epic chorus just repeats until the song fades out around the ten-minute mark. Now that is real music.

If you haven't heard Nightwish before, listen to Dark Passion Play. Now. If you like the sound of Nightwish (reborn or otherwise), Once should certainly be your next stop in their catalogue. Get excited for Imaginarium next year!