I’m going to put about as much effort into this introduction as Courtney Love puts into maintaining the appearance of being sane.

First up today we have the video for “Breakdowns Breakdowns Breakdowns,” from Bury Your Breakdown. Because original vocalist Mat Breakdown has returned to the fold, some people are calling this “the comeback of the year.” Those people need to listen to the new Decapitated album. Although I suspect they may not enjoy it do to a severe absence of breakdowns. Because people who love Bury Your Breakdown really break down breakdowns. I mean, they can’t breakdown with break, d’own? Breakdown breakdown breakdown, breakdown downbreak break down breakdown! HA! Breaky breakdowns.

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The watershed moment for Scar Symmetry fanboys was beloved vocalist Christian Älvestam’s departure in late 2008. It’s like the death of Cliff Burton or Bon Scott, or the departure of Sebastian Bach from Skid Row; it’s that moment when a lot of fans drew solid lines in the sand and jumped ship. Despite the fact that guitarist Jonas Kjellgren has always been the primary songwriter, I get it: Älvestam is an incredibly talented vocalist and the band’s new two-pronged vocal attack is straight up goofy. I feel bad because the new guys are talented enough and I’m sure they’re cool dudes and all, but yeah… goofy is the right word to describe what it looks like when a band has two lead vocalists, and these two guys whose names are rarely ever mentioned are still no match for Älvestam.

Some group of butthurt Scar Symmetry internet trolls have taken to Photoshop for their latest display of nerdrage: a “new” cover for Dark Matter Dimensions, the first Älvestam-less album. Get it? It’s pink!! How feminine!!! You sure told Scar Symmetry how you really feel, Internet!!

-VN

Thanks: Patton and The Number of the Blog

I have a serious case of the Mondays. Happy Humpday! TGIF! Whatever, I don’t give a fuck. Here are today’s hottest new music streams:

• Brooklyn Vegan is streaming “By Which We’re Cemented” from Flourishing’s bruising new effort The Sum of All Fossils. Churning, roiling, intense and ugly are just some of the adjectives I’d use to describe Flourishing’s brand of post-hardcore bludgeoning. The band’s first full-length album will come out on August 2nd via The Path Less Traveled Records.

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If I were the dudes in Scar Symmetry I’d be a little miffed right about now. Super-vocalist Christian Alvestam leaves your band and then proceeds to join 367 other bands, many of whom sound a whole lot like Scar Symmetry, instantly making them all better and attracting new fans from all over the world. Meanwhile you poor saps are stuck with two vocalists, neither of whom are all that special and both of whom look completely lost on stage when the other is singing. On top of that, everyone called bullshit on the auto-tuned / pro-toolsed mess that was your latest album, although some of the tunes are certainly respectable thanks to the genius that is Jonas Kjellgren.

Meanwhile, Christian Alvestam seems to be on top of the Swedish melodeath world; your abilities as a skilled metal vocalist were instantly dignified when your former band struggled mightily to replace you, and you’ve gotten to cherry pick which projects your lend your voice to without the grueling, long-term commitment of touring. You’ve probably also got a normal day job so you don’t have to worry about money on a day-to-day basis.

The most Scar Symmetry-like of Christian Alvestam’s post-SS bands, of course, is Solution .45. For Aeons Past, released earlier this year, is a damn fan disc; so many of the songs could be on a Scar Symmetry album and you’ve certainly have me fooled. And from the looks of this new video for “Gravitational Lensing,” the dudes actually move around on stage.

-VN

Melodeath fans! Have you heard about Solution .45, the new kinda-sorta supergroup featuring Christian Alvestam (ex-Death Jovi Scar Symmetry) on vocals and Miseration’s Jani Stefanovic on guitars? Clearly this band is gonna get a lot of attention – as if their all-star line-up wasn’t enough, Dark Tranquillity’s Mikael Stanne wrote all the lyrics for the group’s debut album, For Aeons Past.

Our bestest buds over at Metal Injection have an exclusive download of a new song by the band, entitled “Gravitational_Lensing.” If you like bands like Scar Symmetry and DT, it’s really, really hard for me to believe you won’t dig this.

Download the song here, then let us know what you think in the comments section below!

-AR

While Scar Symmetry have been busy making music with two new singers that sound like their old one, that old one — Christian Alvestam — has been busy with a ton of new projects of his own. Among them is the very promising Solution.45, a band that also features Mikko Härkin (Cain’s Offering, ex- Sonata Arctica, Kotipelto), Jani Stefanovic (Miseration, Essence Of Sorrow), Tom Gardiner (Hateform, ex- Mors Principium Est), Anders Edlund (Angel Blake), and Rolf Pilve (Miseration).

Solution.45 are currently in the studio recording their debut album. According to an update sent by the band exclusively to MetalSucks, the music is “just about done” and Christian is currently finishing up his vocals. The record will be completely finished and mastered by the end of December, and should see a release this Spring via AFM Records and Marquee/Avalon. The cover artwork will be done by Pär Olofsson, the artist behind the latest Immortal and The Faceless album covers. The album will also feature a few guest appearances, including a few vocal spots by Mikael Stanne of Dark Tranquillity. Neat-o!

Check out a 7 minute teaser of demo material at Solution.45′s MySpace page. It’s good stuff.

-VN

I’ve been living with the new Scar Symmetry album Dark Matter Dimensions for about two weeks now, trying to determine what I think of it. Finally the rest of you can hear it in full on the band’s MySpace page and just for yourselves. In no particular order, here are my thoughts on the album and the new singer(s) situation:

• The songwriting core of the band is definitely intact. They still bring the Death Jovi goods, unaffected by Christian Alvestam’s departure.
• Production-wise, the band have done a lot to make new clean vocalist Lars Palmqvist sound just like Alvestam. At times, I even forget Alvestam is gone. The verdict on whether he’s going to work or not will ultimately come down to how he sounds live, but from the footage I’ve seen so far I’m not convinced. On record, the guy certainly sounds good.
• New growl vocalist Roberth Karlsson is pretty much interchangeable with Alvestam.
• The album is front-loaded, with the first three songs being the best. The rest just kind of seem to blend together for me, but perhaps I just need more time to learn them.

So go on and stream the new album and tell us what you think. The album comes out officially on October 2nd in Europe and October 20th in the States… though you know how silly we think staggered release dates are in the Internet age.

-VN

Here 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