Swedish progressive melodic death metallers SCAR SYMMETRY are working on a concept album trilogy, "The Singularity". The first of the three albums, "The Singularity (Phase I: Neohumanity)", will be released later in the year.Comments SCAR SYMMETRY guitarist Per Nilsson: "Last year, Henrik [Ohlsson, drums] approached me with this super-cool lyrical concept that was so complex and vast in scope that we realized it was a story that couldn't be told in just one album. So, the decision was made: instead of writing a new album, we started working on a trilogy of albums the most ambitious project of our career."In the coming decades, we will see the rise of artificial intelligence and transhumanism. Humanity will build artilects (artificial intellects) with mental capacities far above the human level of thought. By the year 2030, one of the world's biggest industries will be 'artificial brains,' used to control artilects that will be genuinely intelligent and useful. Millions of people will be prepared to spend more money on an artilect than on a car."So in about a decade there will be a thriving artificial brain industry, and nearly everyone will have an artilect which will be upgraded every two or three years. Each new artilect generation will be smarter and more useful than the previous generation, so that as the gap between the human intelligence level and the artificial intelligence level gets smaller every year, the species dominance debate will increase. "There will be those who embrace the new technology and those who oppose it. There will also be those who add artilectual components to their own bodies, aiming to become artilect gods themselves."The rise of the artilects and cyborgs will be disruptive to human culture, creating alienation and hatred. Children infused with artilectual nanotechnology and components will become dead to their parents as they see their offspring turn into cyborgs because they are no longer human, but an artilect in human disguise. Those who oppose the cyborgs and artilects will have to strike early in the oncoming conflict or they will be overthrown by the superior artificial species. Add to this the advances in cryonics and cloning where minds can be downloaded and uploaded into eternal physical life and we see a very different reality emerge on earth."The singularity is here, technocalypse and cybergeddon emerges!"Guitarist Jonas Kjellgren left SCAR SYMMETRY in August 2013 "due to scheduling conflicts with his studio work and his other bands RAUBTIER and BOURBON BOYS."SCAR SYMMETRY was forced to cancel its fall 2012 North American headlining tour due to visa issues.The band's's latest album, "The Unseen Empire", sold around 1,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at position No. 11 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200."The Unseen Empire" was released on April 15, 2011 in Europe and May 17, 2011 in North America via Nuclear Blast Records.
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