On rare occasions we witness the birth of a great band that infuses new life into a genre, a band like no other that breaks boundaries and appeals to fans of almost every style within metal while retaining the essence of melodic death.

This is exactly what this band have done, meet Scar Symmetry.

Their debut album Symmetric in Design knocked very reputable bands off the top of many lists (including Album of the Year on ‘Sex to 9’) and earned the band a worldwide contract with Nuclear Blast.

The challenge for any band with such beginnings is to not bow to pressure and come up with a second album that maintains the same level of creativity and freshness. The Swedes have outdone themselves and delivered an album to make our jaws dropped in awe. Scar Symmetry are certainly not one hit wonders, in my opinion they’re reinventing melodic death.

This album is much heavier than their debut and yet more melodic, groovy yet technical and the tracks are catchy as hell, before you know it you’ll be singing along to every tune. It all comes to every individual talent within the band gelled in complete harmony and as a result, Scar Symmetry have produced a very diverse and complete album. It’s full of great riffs and dueling solos (isn’t that what metal is about?) by Jonas Kjellgren and Per Nilsson, a solid rhythm section with the awesome drumming of Henrik Ohlsson of Theory in Practice fame and the splendid bass of Kenneth Seil, a few layers of synths add the more atmospheric sounds.

But what really makes this album stand out above all the others and where the true magic lies, is in the outstanding vocals of Christian Älvestam. There are very few singers that can truly pull the dual vocals off, incredibly heavy growls combined with beautifully and emotional clean vocals. Christian’s vocal range is out of this world and to me he belongs to a very select group of vocalists (Dan Swanö and perhaps Mikael Akerfeldt) who are equally outstanding on both. To top it all off, the production by guitarist and founder Jonas Kjellgren is crystal clear.

If you’re looking for aggression with tons of melody, just the right amount of guitar virtuoso stuff and vocals to die for, this is the album for you. Scar Symmetry not only have raised the bar very high, but they could very easily save melodic death from falling into its own predictability.