Review: Scar Symmetry - Pitch Black Progress (2006)

Scar Symmetry hails from Sweden and I don't know what it is, but Norway, Sweden and Finland are a power trio when it comes to bad-ass metal bands, (Soilwork, Children of Bodom, etc.).

'Pitch Black Progress' is actually Scar's second outing. Their debut CD, 'Symmetric in Design,' was released only a year before 'Pitch Black Progress' but the sound is amazing. Maybe that's the key when it comes to releasing a successful sophomore album: do it within a year of your debut release. At any rate, 'Pitch Black' ranks above 'Symmetric' and it's one of my favourite CDs.

The album starts with 'The Illusionist,' simply a bad-ass song with the perfect mixture of clean vocals and growling. If you exercise or run at all, you'll find you can easily set a pace to this track.

Now, the song itself can be viewed as the perfect representative for the CD as a whole. The music is never dull, the guitar solos would humble any axe player, and the coupling of clean and unclean vocals is transcendent.

When I first listened to this CD, though, I was still fresh when it came to metal music. The (sometimes incoherent) growls would keep me from fully enjoying the music and in the beginning, I was stuck listening to the same two or three songs:

• Mind Machine
• Dreaming 24/7
• Carved in Stone

Listen to 'Mind Machine' and you'll see why: it's all clean vocals. Well, sort of. The second verse is screaming whereas the first was all clean. The chorus is clean and the double bass pedals and the head-banging pace takes a backseat to an almost more traditional set-up - like a radio single. And of course, there's a good (but short) solo two-thirds in. 'Dreaming 24/7' is along the same lines. Clean vocals to start off, with growls and screams interspersed throughout.

'Carved in Stone,' one of two bonus tracks, was for the longest time, my favourite song from this release. Play it loud and you are punished: the intro itself is monstrous. The opening gives way to a dreamy, clean verse before a deep growl and unclean verse is spit out next. The whole song goes back and forth, clean and unclean, between verse and chorus for two minutes or so before giving way to a solo, a bridge, and then another solo! The closing minute, though, is like a reward for surviving the assault that the song is: one last refrain, giving way to an outro (the intro extended and upgraded in bad-assness).

Don't go into this CD wanting to skip around and selectively listen to their work, because you'd be robbing yourself of some of the best metal the world has to offer. The three tracks above are great, but not the best. Like I said, 'Carved in Stone' was my favourite track for a long while. Once my tastes had evolved, I went back and listened to 'Pitch Black Progress' from start to finish and I absolutely love it.

The second bonus track, 'Deviate from the Form,' is even more bad-ass than 'Carved in Stone.' 'Calculate the Apocalypse' starts off with the most bad-ass growl/scream I have ever heard and 'Oscillation Point' is my new favourite track.

I can't easily compare Scar Symmetry to another act I know of. Whenever I finish listening to them, I usually go and do it again. I just can't find someone as heavy as them.

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