SCAR SYMMETRY EMBRACE “DEATH JOVI” NAME TAG

I love tooting my own horn. I also love creating new terms, abusing my status as popular hack metal writer and watching said terms be adopted by the metal community at large. So far to our credit here at MetalSucks, Axl, myself and our talented staffers have brought the following terms to prominence: Sumeriancore, WDBWA (with regards to music), elephants marching riffs, impaling aardvark babies, taco riffs and wigger slam (popularized by Sergeant D). We rule!

Now we can add “Death Jovi” to that list. The term was coined by Metal Injection’s Frank Godla to describe Scar Symmetry’s adept mix of death metal and sugary sweet hooks, and the minute I heard him say it I instantly knew what he meant. Working in tandem, MI and MS have pounded the term out on e-paper so many times that the band got wind of it and rightfully took it as a compliment. In a recent piece for Noisecreep:

“We regard the term ‘Death Jovi’ as a compliment because that’s essentially what we want to do musically on some of the songs,” drummer Henrik Ohlsson told Noisecreep. “We’re big fans of both Bon Jovi and death metal, so what the hell?”

Bingo! I can’t say I think Scar Symmetry’s most recent effort really lives up to the Death Jovi name (enough Death, not enough Jovi), but I got nothin’ but love for all the band’s older material and still have loads of respect for Jonas Kjellgren.

-VN