Up today: Death Jovi, with their newest album (and first of a THREE PART album cycle [holy shitballs]), 'Neohumanity'. I'll not use the full title as it's nearly as cumbersome as the title to SikTh's first disc is.
So, what's on play here? Well, more of the same, really. If you know Scar Symmetry's previous material, you'll know what to expect here. They have the same sort of consistency that Lamb of God have with their style, in that there is a defined sound, with dual lead harmonies, technical widdles, alternating gruff and clean vocals and rapid rhythms. There's also science fiction. Lots of science fiction.
The album's first tracks open up with the concept of the album laid out, and nearly immediately we can tell Per Nilsson has been listening to Chimpspanner (the opening riff to 'Neohuman' wouldn't sound amiss in Ortiz's 'Mobius' suite). Growler Roberth Karlsson is sounding like a bear who's gone and caught his ballsack in a trap (as per usual - it's a very angry growl indeed) whilst clean singer Lars Palmqvist has added what I can only describe as a haunting quality to his delivery again, which seemed absent on The Unseen Empire (2011), and the return of this is welcome indeed. Henrik Ohlsson's drumming is tight, fast and chaotic, and Kenneth Seil's criminally underrated bass abuse again provides a simultaneous lockstep and counterpoint to Per's melodies. For anyone to keep up with that man is impressive, but on a bass? Doubly so. Buy him a beer.
The lyrics are predictably corny, but that's fine, because Scar Symmetry embrace cheese in a way that only Swedes can (Sabaton, anyone?). The spoken word ending to the incredibly ominous 'The Cryonic Harvest' is cheddar in purest form, even down to the atypical not-quite-perfect English that Swedish bands so often give us, but that I see as a very endearing quality. The first single 'Limits to Infinity' is amazingly catchy with a sledgehammer breakdown.
You'd think eight tracks would be a bit of a gip, but no. We have Dream Theater song lengths on occasion here, and so the disc lasts for near on 45 minutes. It's not the first time Scar Symmetry have touched on Dream Theater stylings - I'm sure this is a coincidence, but check out the introduction to 'Ghost Prototype II' and 'The Count of Tuscany'. Both discs are also from the same year. Spooky. To return to topic, the increased song length on 'Neohuman' and 'Technocalyptic Cybergeddon' works very well, and provides a nice balance to the radio length tracks on offer.
The album presently scores at a solid 9/10, and only misses the ten by virtue of brevity. But it's one in three. I'm good to wait for the rest to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment