NEW SCAR SYMMETRY SONG LEAKS! DO THE TWO NEW VOCALISTS LIVE UP TO THE HYPE?
Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 3:50pm by Vince NeilsteinHere it is, sent in by Jonathon E. (original source unconfirmed). I think it’s pretty safe to say that musically-speaking, Scar “Death Jovi” Symmetry haven’t lost anything at all. But has the replacement of ex-vocalist Christian Alvestam with two separate vocalists, one for singing and one for screaming, affected the band’s sound for better or worse? Rather than mouth off I’d like to know what you all think.
-VN
HOLLY FUCKERS SHIT!
THANK YOU SO MUCH VINCE!!! AND JONATHAN!!! GODS, YOU GUYS ARE INDEED!
I’ve been dying to listen some new Scar Symmetry for way too long now!
the choruses have a very similar feel… catchy as fuck!!!
The guttural vocals might be a bit too polished !!!
Cheers man!
It’s really good. The music is strong the lyrics are typical Scar Symmetry. But to me, it just feels like something is missing from it, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Still, I was worried the new material would suck with the two vocalists and they proved me wrong.
Musically speaking it is pretty damn solid. Vocals are good….but not as good as beofre in my opinion.
$20 says this will grow on me in a few listens. At this point I’m still expecting Christians vocals. But the new guys don’t do too bad. Chorus sounds la bit too much like a Mercenary chorus. And fucking Per kills it on the solo as usual. Regardless I’m impressed.
I’ll have to wait until I hear the rest of the album to make a judgment, but so far it sounds like the two new vocalists have done a good job of replacing Christian.
I wasn’t the guy who uploaded it by the way, but it’s definitely SS. I really can’t wait for this album now, after hearing the clean singer live I was dissappointed. But on this song he sounds a lot better as it’s obviously fitted for his voice, rather than trying to imitate Christian, which is a pretty tall order to say in the least.
Seems to be a little more death-metally and more power-metally than before, if that makes sense. Me likey.
I was literally JUST thinking I should check to see if this band had anything new out yet as I hadn’t looked into them since they announced the CD.
I really like it. More so than before actually. Like…as opposed to before where the vocals seemed to be the only thing prominent, everything seems to mesh better now. It seems more complete.
I like Christian’s vocals much better. But, I guess they’re better than no Scar Symmetry at all.
Meh. Only reason I really liked these guys was because of their last vocalist.
This just confirms it. Not a big fan at all without him. Still some good solos, at least.
It’ll take some time getting used to the new singers but this band fucking rules and is worth listening too, so I’ll keep listening.
Clean vocals took a big hit with the lost of Christian.
Growls are about the same.
Haha, I was just thinking of sending this to you guys. I want to learn to play this. This song is really good, and I like the new vocalists in their roles here, but I have a feeling this will be one of the more pedestrian songs off the new album. Regardless, I love the part that starts around 3 minutes in.
That chorus is pretty stock, as is most of the rest of the song for that matter.
I think the new vocals give the song a different feel, which is great.
Looking forward to this album.
Alvestam is in a bunch of other bands so he won’t be gone from the scene for very long.
Hmm… I’m a huge fan of SS so this might take some getting used to. Feels kinda like it’s missing something… it could have been worse though.
Well, it sounds like Scar Symmetry, for the most part, which is good. Neither vocalist is a perfect replacement for Alvestam, but they’re certainly serviceable enough. I’d like to hear a better-quality version of it, of course, and I’ll have to hear the whole album before I pass judgment on it, but it sounds like it’ll be a good follow-up to ‘Holographic Universe’.
this is kinda like a tootsie roll but when you open it up it’s just a turd…
this isn’t bad at all, but the only reason I ever listened to SS was for Alvestam. So I’ll just listen to his other bands.
Very very good. I was wondering how they would progress from the last cd and this is exactly what they needed to do. The vocals ARE different, but not in a bad way all. The gutteral stuff is still there, but the clean vocals have their own personality, more European-sounding to my ears, which makes sense. LOVE the raspy Black Metal-ish vocals. Great variety, great song! I’m excited for this one!
They’ve did crazier solo’s before.
I’m going to go into this album from the perspective of it being a new band, obviously there is going to be vocal differences, but I bet there will be a lot of changes musically as well.
I love SS, Holographic Universe is probably one of my favorite albums ever and I’m enjoying this greatly.
I’m not sure if anyone can ever replace Christian Alvestam but they’re doing an admirable job.
I don’t like the way the switching between clean and growled vocals happens – it’s too evident that it’s two people, rather than one. It’s not bad by itself, but compared to older SS, it’s not as good. The clean vocals seem too….digitized, rather than realistic. The growls are good, though. Musically, it still sounds pretty solid.
I’d like it more if the growls and clean vocals had less mixed time together. I realise that’s what made the band previously, but it just doesn’t seem to work right with two vocalists, rather than one. Clean vocalist doesn’t have the range Christian did, that’s for sure…he sounds almost binary. Either squeaky-high, or the more normal-voice spoken vocals.
I’ll wait for the album to hit, but I seriously doubt it knocks anything from Pitch Black Progress/Holographic Illusion/Symmetric in Design off my playlist.
The clean vocals are better. They were way too sugary on HU. And those who have heard the album say it’s less progressive and more in the vein of Pitch Black Progress.
I agree with ya Mikey. Pitch Black Progress ruled. Holographic Universe was good but a tad too “happy” if that makes sense. Although I don’t like two singers in ANY band, I think this new song is more of what I liked from earlier Scar Symmetry.
a la Illusionist?
Good stuff. Not on par with Christian’s stuff, but close enough. Now I want to listen to the new album to get the full experience. Christian’s vocals were so damn good, that now they need two guys to try to keep up.
I’d say it sounds pretty interesting! Different, but interesting.
The screams, and growls especially sound almost dead on. Definitely not a fan of the new clean vocal. Way too many effects and it sounds almost cheesy.
The song seems to be a step back from HU, but it’s still average, good-but-not-great Scar Symmetry. The harsh vocals are fine (the high pitch guttural work is welcomed), but the cleans have so many effects added to them that it’s pathetic. They might as well have T-Pain do clean vocals.
This song is amazing and as SS said, the two vocalists were the only appropriate choice to replace Alvestam properly. In my opinion, if the upcoming album is half good as PBP and HU, it is going to be a masterpiece.
Love the new growls – a little less raspy, a little more understandable. Jury’s out on the cleans; I think I like them, but I don’t care for the vocal line on the chorus. I liked Alvestam alright, but his growl was just too raspy and indecipherable for my tastes.
Never really listened to old S.S. I was getting into this track until the chorus. Kind of a little on the vaggy side for me. The growls are respectable though. Kind of relateable to Sea of Treachery (in bipolar ‘growl-vag-growl’). That seems to be the trend with bands nowadays.
not digging it without Christian.
I’m gutted to say this but I don’t like it. Guess they peaked with HU.
RIP
It’s one song, how can you make that determination?
Yeah really!
I like it!
It took less time to get into this song than back when they released ‘Morphogenesis’, the riffs and solos are pretty bad ass, I also like the clean vocals, a bit more subtle than Christian’s.
I think the new album will be an instant buy after all…
If this is more or less how the rest of the album will sound, then SS has pretty much died.
However, a new band has been found, just not quite as good.
Don’t really care for any of the vocalists…I listen to this band mainly for the guitar. I’d prefer a solid death growl or even a solid clean vocal throughout.
the new vocalists sound just like a not as good version of christian but still really good. i like it!
good shit imo. still a great band. can’t wait for the new album!
Very very disappointing, the clean vocalist kills any interest I have in any more of scar symmetrys work just as matt heafy killed trivium and corey taylor killed slipknot Iowa was the last good album they made, and for ss, hu was their greatest work.
The Clean singer-
The way he sounds on “The Consciousness Eaters” during the piece where the guitar and drums stop, “Once again.” completely NO feeling at all, just bland boredom with a hint of sighing depression. The feeling I received was the basis that during the recording of the album he was constantly staring at his watch asking if he was done yet, its like he’s bored. Compared to Christian, he has no soul. Its not just tce, its also the Iconoclast as well, none of it feels right, not the guitar, not the growls, not the *shudders* clean vocals. Its like someone in a paper mache class who just smears a glop of glue on a desk and drops some shavings of paper into it and calls it a master piece, its random and it just doesn’t blend well.
I would love the new album if they would just put a vice grip on that clean singers balls because he’s not reaching to the sky like christian did. He’s boring and has completely killed what was a great band. This is something I have to give no stars out of five, this wasn’t ready, not even in another two months.
hands down, the clean vocalist needs to take lessons badly, or as i’ve suggested, having a vice applied to his manhood.
This cant be scar symmetry, it just can’t.
The growls-
It may just be me but at times I listen to it and I am reminded just so slightly of amon amarth and I begin to think i’m not storming through infinite possibilities of the unknown but rather, i’m trudging through a frozen wasteland for the gods. Not that this is a bad thing, this guy can seriously make me bang my head and thats great, the only peeve I have is the slight resemblance in sound, but then again, I love amon amarth :)
Guitar/drum work-
it just feels really rushed with the addition of these two new singers, im sorry i should say the new singer and that other guy who just blandly moans into his mic and calls himself the clean vocalist, not even his backup growls are good. Sounds like he has a crack in his throat and all the air is trying to escape rather quickly. I’m off topic! Now, their skill in playing the instruments has NOT decreased at all, however, it seems to me like and overall united feeling for the songs have.
This affects how they come out, its not just the vocalist who have a say in what goes where with this riff or that riff or this vocal segment or that line of drums, everyone has to come together, my final thoughts on why this came out the way it did.
They were all completely 100%
Shitfaced.