Scar Symmetry - Holographic Universe

Easily my favorite album of all time.

Amazing MUSIC... and MORPHOGENISIS brought tears to my eyes

Man I love this album. No matter how many times I've listened to this, it doesn't seem to get old or lose any steam. I just love how the keys blend with the riffs on so many of the songs...but Christian's voice is possibly the best part about it. Does anyone else hear the Devin Townsend influence in the title track?

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Ty for commenting and reminding me this existed. This is one of those bands where I honestly can't tell whether I think they're great because they are or because of blinding nostalgia. What I do know though is that Christian slays. Shame there's not much audible footage of him live with this band.

The new stuff is actually very good and I think they're going in the right direction. Per Nilsson's guitars are still killer, and the two vocalists have vastly improved since they came in. I know this though: to hear them live with Christian must have been an otherworldly experience, I'm so pissed I never got that chance...

Written by Necrodamus on 31.05.2016 at 09:48

Man I love this album. No matter how many times I've listened to this, it doesn't seem to get old or lose any steam. I just love how the keys blend with the riffs on so many of the songs...but Christian's voice is possibly the best part about it. Does anyone else hear the Devin Townsend influence in the title track?

In the chorus, right? It does sound like the chorus to one of his songs.

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In the chorus, right? It does sound like the chorus to one of his songs.

Actually more so in the intro of the song, which sounds a lot like what Devin has done on his earlier solo albums (the song Truth, in particular). But I do hear some resemblance in the chorus as well. Either way, it was just a nice thing to hear when I listened to it the other day.

There is a certain similarity between this and Buried in Oblivion (Into Eternity) in that they do a job of mixing incredibly technical thrash/death metal with growls and gutterals with very melodic cleans.
Here, the cleans sound almost like 80s hair metal, whereas the Into Eternity cleans sound more like Fates Warning.
Some of the cleans here are extremely cheesy, but when this album is on point, it is absolutely incredible

There are very very few "pop metal" albums I ever listen to and this is actually one of the only ones I've ever liked. Some may take offense to this label but I think it's 100% apt. This isn't particularly original, complex, innovative, or forward thinking, but it is catchy af. I'm very particular when it comes to clean vocals, usually I hate them, however, if I like them the range is an important factor (eg Protest The Hero, Into Eternity, Galneryus), The singer here is really great if you happen to like that high pitched (yet non falsetto) mega range. When it comes to music like this it's all about how listenable it is, and I have to say that this is one of the most listenable albums of all time. If I have non-metal or "basic metal" people in the car I know I can put this on and they're not going to hate me. This is also a great album if you have someone trying out metal and you want to trick them into the genre as it's extremely accessible. All that being said, this is a bit like going to Taco Bell, you hate yourself for liking it, but damn, you know what you're getting and there's something about that regular ass fake meat soft taco that's hard not to like.

Have had a Scar Symmetry throw back the last few days. And this album, it's just, one of the best albums of all time. Melodeath doesn't get better than this.