One of the hottest European Metal Prospects of recent years, Scar Symmetry, return with their third album,  “Holographic Universe”, following on from where Pitch Black Progress left off. Opening track “Morphogenesis” sounds amazingly space age, mixing melodies with brutal death metal stomping and some killer solo’s, sounding like a colourful hybrid of Threat Signal, Obituary and Opeth  and, as “Timewave Zero” opens, you instantly can hear elements of modern In Flames and Soilwork, vocal melodies layered over repetitive guitar work. It’s easy to see where Sonic Syndicate got some tips on production from, when Christian Älvestam got involved with their album. The song embodies exactly what the band are all about, thundering death metal combined with powerful clean vocals. 

“Quatumleaper” showcases the band’s style perfectly as it has all the elements that make up Scar Symmetry. “The Missing Coordinates” and “Ghost Prototype I” show the band are more than a melody maker, as combined there are nearly ten minutes of technical wizardry.  The end of the album however is much heavier, “Holographic Universe” is a nine minute feast of immense heaviness and “The Three-Dimensional Shadow” is a huge slab of death metal with a major portion of Rush, like 2112 meets Chaosphere. 

This album sees Scar Symmetry join the elite league of Euro metallers who have a modern sound twisted with futuristic elements, extremely similar to label mates Meshuggah, Threat Signal and Mnemic as well as rising British stars Midnight Realm. Holographic Universe proves they are one of the hottest bands around, building on their break through album and this is definitely a contender for album of the year!

John Consterdine