THIS ONE SHOULD BE INTERESTING: SCAR SYMMETRY READY NEW ALBUM

Metal Injection’s Frank Godla once referred to Scar Symmetry’s brand of heavily poppified melodic Swedish death metal as “Death Jovi,” and it may be the single most brilliant thing he’s ever said. Not that Death Jovi is meant as an insult; it’s meant as the absolute highest compliment, a testament to both the band’s unbelievable chops and their penchant for writing giant, humongous, tremendous, monster-sized hooks.

So it was with great sadness that we reported the departure of vocalist Christian Alvestam from the band last September, and with curiosity only a month later that we reported his role his been filled by two new guys: Roberth Karlsson on “lead growl vocals” and “backing clean vocals” and Lars Palmqvist on “lead clean vocals” and “backing growl vocals.” While I lamented the loss of Alvestam unique voice, I figured better for two guys to get it right than one guy to get it wrong. And naturally, I wondered how involved Alvestam was in the writing of Scar Symmetry’s ” The Jersey Shawww of Sweden” singalongs.

Nuclear Blast’s European webstore is now reporting October 2nd as a release date for a new Scar Symmetry record called Dark Matter Dimensions, and SS’s Wikipedia page is reporting October 10 as a U.S. release date (source unconfirmed).

Will Karlsson and Palmqvist be able to fill Alvestam’s giant-sized vocal shoes? Will the quality of the songwriting be diminished? Will new Scar Symmetry music give me the same raging boner their past material has? My guess is we’ll find out in about a month when the band starts to unleash some new material.

-VN