The Holographic Universe (Album and Theory)

[Djabthrash]

I dunno, in my opinion it's half assed garbage with absolutely no musical integrity and sounds intentionally written to appeal to a mass audience of simpletons that don't have a true passion for music and only appreciate it on a superficial level.

I can appreciate simple music, but it genuinely irks me that dudes in this band can wear a Spawn of Possession hoodie (one of the most musically complex and intelligent sounding bands in death metal today) and be satisfied writing this sort of music... There are obviously alterior motives at play.

I don't agree. I don't see this band on MTV or something. It's definitely very melodic and full of electronic stuff and more, but i think those guys play the music for themselves and don't care about the "mass audience" so much. I have no doubt about their musical integrity.

I understand your feeling though because when i first heard this albumi was like "omg this some kind of all-out clean vocals/modern meshuggah riffs/electro metal like Soilwork and In Flames but that goes 10 times further" but when you listen to it a couple of times you'll see it's not that at all.
Maybe you won't like it anyway, it's a matter of taste, but i don't think one can say this a "sellout" band or something.

 

[Kazrog]

Yeah, mass audience, right.... These guys sold 2400 copies in two weeks in the states and that's cause for celebration for them. By mainstream standards that's failure beyond failure in terms of numbers...

Definitely my favorite album of 2008 so far! And I love the 80s metal influences, I can hear Dokken, Racer X, White Lion, Steve Vai, etc. but the mix of the melodicism and shredding with the overall brutality this band is capable of is killer and very fresh to me.

As for the theory, my bassist (doc_backmask) and I were having a conversation last night about black holes, etc., so it's interesting this got posted around the same time. The holographic theory seems a little far-fetched to me conceptually, and I don't fully understand some of the physics principles involved, but I think it's a great album concept.

 

[beyond dead]

definitely think this cd is waaaay better than any of the "brutal" releases in the past few years. to me being able to write catchy songs with good structure takes way more natural talent then remembering a bunch of odd changes and off kilter riffs that don`t make sense. scar symmetry has top notch production, top notch song writing and amazing musicianship. not mainstream by anymeans, just good music, which is more than you can say about brutal metal

 

[Djabthrash]

definitely think this cd is waaaay better than any of the "brutal" releases in the past few years. to me being able to write catchy songs with good structure takes way more natural talent then remembering a bunch of odd changes and off kilter riffs that don`t make sense. scar symmetry has top notch production, top notch song writing and amazing musicianship. not mainstream by anymeans, just good music, which is more than you can say about brutal metal

I don't agree. There's some "brutal" bands with awesome songwriting/records and that have nothing to do with the "remembering a bunch of odd changes and off kilter riffs that don`t make sense" you describe and that I'd only apply to all the millions of AllshallPerish/The Black Dahlia Murder/Despised Icon Wannabee/Myspace Deathcore retarded bands out there.

Albums like Animosity's "Animal", The Black Dahlia Murder's "nocturnal", Dying Fetus' "destroy the opposition", Nile's "Annihilation of the wicked", Severe Torture's "Fall of the despised", Morbid Angel's "Domination" are brutal as fuck as well as very catchy with good structure. It's not up to the average deathcore poser on Myspace to become the next Suffocation or Morbid Angel. FYIyou talk about recent releases, Animosity/TDBM/severe Torture are pretty recent, the rest is a bit less recent but still.

I think saying brutal music (except the ripoff myspace poser deathcore bands i mentioned) is somehow retarded is retarded

 

[egan.]

I dunno, in my opinion it's half assed garbage with absolutely no musical integrity and sounds intentionally written to appeal to a mass audience of simpletons that don't have a true passion for music and only appreciate it on a superficial level.

I've got to say...while this record isn't my thing I consider it too well executed in every regard to write-off. My friends love it and we all refer to it as 'pop-death' (I don't associate anything negative w/ the term pop).

The notion that anyone would pick underground metal as their straight line to mass audiences is hilarious. Actually, so few bands in any style are lucky enough to make a living that the notion that someone would or even could sell-out for mass appeal is generally preposterous. Far more likely is they are writing songs b/c they like them. There are a million genuine writers for every 1 Gene Simmons.

 

[PostMortem1666]

I like this album but in my opinion it isn't as great as pitch black progress. Don't get me wrong though it is still one hell of an album I just like Pitch Black Progress a little more.

I think saying brutal music (except the ripoff myspace poser deathcore bands i mentioned) is somehow retarded is retarded

+1

 

[beyond dead]

ya i kinda stereotyped a genre my bad. i do enjoy many brutal bands such as bloodbath, blood red throne, dying fetus and the like. but scar symmetry definitely are a little more interesting to listen to IMO. ive listened to "brutal" shit for over 10 years, and it is quite tiring. not trying to upset anyone as music preference is just that... preference

 

[JBroll]

It's quantum stuff so I'm waiting on testability... string theory, cool as it may sound, is still untestable (even though this has some serious math behind it) so I'm going to refrain from saying anything either way. Still haven't heard the album, on that note.

Jeff

 

[AdamWathan]

To each their own I guess, I just can't figure out how Jonas Kjellgren can go from being in Centinex to this band and not be completely bored off of his ass, same with Henrik coming from Theory in Practice and Mutant.

 

[Kazrog]

To each their own I guess, I just can't figure out how Jonas Kjellgren can go from being in Centinex to this band and not be completely bored off of his ass, same with Henrik coming from Theory in Practice and Mutant.

Uh, Scar Symmetry's music is every bit as challenging, progressive, shredding, etc. If not more so...

 

[Ermz]

Whatever genre one decides to slap onto the band, there's certainly an undercurrent of pop influence. I've seen them called 'melodic death', 'progressive death', 'heavy metal' etc. To me the most apt description is Pop-metal or pop-death. But the very nature of the music, constantly changing between open choruses, and thrashy/deathy verses makes it inaccessible. There's definitely no way the guys have adopted that sound for any 'commercial success'. I think they quite enjoy what they're doing, and I think for them, 'pop' in essence is actually a sound rather than a commentary on where they sit on the charts.

 

[Metaltastic]

I haven't heard this new one, but I saw them live and heard a few of the album-versions of their songs, and my impressions were yet another "growled verse/clean chorus" band that really didn't do anything for me. I'll check out this new album, though, cuz believe it or not, Figure Number Five is my second favorite Soilwork album, and I definitely thought "Sworn..." had it's moments, so I don't necessarily mind the "growl verse/sung chorus" formula - I just feel VERY few can do it as well as Soilwork.

 

[CatharsisStudios]

this album is fucking heavier than all of their others, the reason why.


DYNAMICS.

pitch black was fucking awesome and so was symmetric in design

this album is just a combination of both albums.

and its good to see swedish bands using breakdowns that don't suck
scar symmetry is hands down my favorite band, plus if you look at darkane they are all like super serious during recordings on the other hand scar symmetry is just having fun, so they win haha

 

[AdamWathan]

Uh, Scar Symmetry's music is every bit as challenging, progressive, shredding, etc. If not more so...

Are you kidding me? Aside from the solos, I could've played these songs when I was 10 years old. It's 95% just big chord progressions. Have you even LISTENED to Theory in Practice? One of the most insanely technical and over the top bands of all time! I've been playing guitar for 17 years and I STILL can't play that shit!

 

[Kazrog]

Are you kidding me? Aside from the solos, I could've played these songs when I was 10 years old. It's 95% just big chord progressions. Have you even LISTENED to Theory in Practice? One of the most insanely technical and over the top bands of all time! I've been playing guitar for 17 years and I STILL can't play that shit!

I guess I'm primarily referring to the solos. Theory in Practice is great and I am very familiar with their music.

 

[AdamWathan]

I guess I'm primarily referring to the solos. Theory in Practice is great and I am very familiar with their music.

The solos are pretty fierce for sure, I'll give ya that

Not really into leads myself, I've always been into riffing and odd time signatures and stuff, which I guess is why Theory in Practice turns my crank and this stuff doesn't... Really, I'm just bitter that I'll never get a new TiP album

 

[smy1]

Just listening to it now. First song sounds good. If it wasn't always for those shitty synth sounds ALL of those bands (Soilwork, etc.) use.

Gives me an underlying Dream Theater-meets-Iced Earth kind of vibe so far. And I like it.

 

[smy1]

And yet another album I am gonna buy this year. I really like it. It's definitely an album that one needs to get into for a while, cause it is definitely too complex to be pop ...

You guys should listen to the stuff I submitted to Universal lately (songwriting for some new pop projects they are trying to get off the ground). THAT is 3 chord pop ... Scar Symmetry definitely isnt!

 

[Black neon bob]

I didn't pay attention to the lyrics and content but i like the layout and i LOVE the album, even if i was kinda "shocked" at first with the enormous amount of über-gay vocals and kinda new-wave + old-school heavy/progressive metal sounding stuff, but now i'm used to it and i LOVE it. Something funny is that usually i hate this kind of very modern metal full of electro/samples parts, clean vocals, etc...

I got to check this out, sounds like my kind of music!

 

[Black neon bob]

Holy shit and then some, just checked out two songs on their myspace site, A-fuckin-Mazing!
The vocals sound huge, guitars sound great as well, im getting this day one.