Band:	Scar Symmetry
Album:	Dark Matter Dimensions
Style:	Melodic death metal, Progressive power metal
Release date:	October 02, 2009
Guest review by:	Aebsi

01. The Iconoclast
02. The Consciousness Eaters
03. Noumenon And Phenomenon
04. Ascension Chamber
05. Mechanical Soul Cybernetics
06. Non-Human Era
07. Dark Matter Dimensions
08. Sculptor Void
09. A Parenthesis In Eternity
10. Frequency-Shifter
11. Radiant Strain
12. Pariah [limited Digipak bonus]
13. The Consciousness Eaters [edit version] [Japanese bonus]

We all know Älvestam has departed and was a big part of the Scar Symmetry overall trademark sound (like it should be with all vocalists). Two vocalists Robert Karlsson and Lars Palmqvist have filled in the vacant spot. The last SS album wasn't great but it wasn't that bad either and even a slight disappointment when compared to the one before.

Now lets focus on the album, the obvious change is in the clean vocal parts, they sound dangerously similar to Mercenary in my ears as they sing in harmonies that could be copied from Mercenary. In this album we have music and growling wise all the earlier SS's trademarks, and to me this album is a step upwards musically as there seems to be more confidence on this album than on the last album, at least everything seems to fit better in place here.

They even try new things in their songs and there's a whole song devoted to different things like "Mechanical Soul Cybernetics" with very ambitious Meshuggah like riffs, but something doesn't work for me in this song, they also do this on "Nonhuman Era" but slightly differently as they mix the trademarks with this experiment and here it works better for their sound and style, a very good song, this simply serves to add diversity to the album, a very welcome treat in my ears.
The melodies are as to be suspected from a Swedish band very solid and beautiful.

On the more SS like songs the downside is that they seem to be to focused on their own formula behind SS's trademark songs as you hear the formula repeated the same way in each of these songs. These songs are still really good but as I said to loyal to formula (I'm just describing the feeling I got from those songs) but criticize them all I like, these songs are the ones that make the highlights of the album. The solos here are as expected masterfully done fit perfectly to what's going on in each of these songs.

But I can promise that the good songs on this album grow on you getting better with each listening, a good asset to an album, still there are songs here and there that you (I at least) just skip.

The album is still better than the last album, far better music wise, but not without it's flaws as I explained above, the growlings are pretty good but the album is lacking in clean vocals, those already familiar with Scar Symmetry should find this album pretty good yet get the feeling SS stayed just slightly on the "safe" side, newcomers you can find all the SS's trademarks here so this is just as good a start as any. Noteworthy songs "The Consciousness Eaters", "Noumenon And Phenomenon", "Ascension Chamber", "Sculpture Void" and "Radiant Strain". Overall a pretty solid Scar Symmetry experience.