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| SCAR SYMMETRY, BIBLEBLACK & BLACKSTAR HALO ‒ Dante's Highlight, Helsinki ‒ March 10, 2010 |
For as much as I'm crazy about Scar Symmetry, and have been since the minimally publicized release of Symmetric in Design in '05, and their nearly back-to-back U.S. tours after Pitch Black Progress two years later, I was not so thrilled to find out that on this, their first Helsinki gig, they weren't scheduled to start until midnight. On a Wednesday, mind you. I could now continue to whine for some time about how someone needs to step in and correct this inconvenient and unwelcoming weekday gig scheduling crisis, and that it causes potential attendees to miss out on shows because of work conflicts the next morning, but in this case, it didn't seem to impact attendance one iota ‒ much to my surprise.  It's pretty unlikely that Dante's was crowded on account of the opening acts who got the more reasonable time slots. The evening began with Tampere's Blackstar Halo, a band that claims their musical intention to be "sounding as Swedish as possible", and although the concept sounded appropriate to the event, the actualization of this sound was hardly achieved. Instead, at times I was reminded more of up-tempo HIM, complete with pretty-boy vocalist, or else some slightly less annoying version of an American mallcore band, but with better riffs. Not a bad live band, but the material seriously lacked the heaviness needed to appease this crowd, and this reviewer.  Though not terribly original or musically exciting, Bibleblack was able to add a small element of interest to the gig. Also from Sweden, and only having one year and one full-length behind their belts, Bibleblack was essentially hyped as "the band with the guy who plays guitar in King Diamond and Mercyful Fate". What this means, of course, is that they lacked a suitable supply of their own material, and encored with a couple of songs from Mercyful's early career [although, fortunately for me, with a heavier growling style that lacked the choir-of-baby-cries vocal acrobatics]. These final songs barely had anything in common with the rest of the material, which was much more towards the Swedish melodeath that Blackstar Halo may have been aiming for, but with a healthy amount of soloing and a slight scent of power/heavy metal. Still, the most interesting aspect of their show was piercing-white-eyed vocalist Kacper's amusement by his own familiarity with Finnish vocabulary. After nearly each song, he thanked the audience with "kiitos", and often followed it with something like "kiitos, right? that's Finnish for thanks? yeah, kiitos!!", or then digging deeper into "perkele, vittu, and... what is that other Finnish word I know? ahhh, saatana! Vittu, perkele, SAATANAAAAA!"But now, on to much better things. In the time since I had last seen Scar Symmetry, two new albums and two new singers have materialized and, with this vocal change being first heard on their newest release Dark Matter Dimensions, there was at least some time to adjust to Christian Älvestam's missing presence. The dual-styled deep growled and clean vocals he offered us through the first three records was what stood out the most, perfectly complementing the sometimes progressive and sometimes harsh riffs. But perhaps most addicting and having the most character was his vocal phrasings, which sometimes sounded awkward on first listen, but on deeper consideration, were unique and, well, brilliant. Naturally, while still unpredictably, the solution was to recruit one singer specialized in each of the styles. While I wasn't quite convinced on record, primarily because of the new clean vocal melodies, these guys made me a believer with their live performance. New growler Robban Karlsson, who has been in nearly as many bands as Älvestam, and now performs the harsh vocal duties, sounds almost identical, both on record and when performing the older material. Lars Palmqvist, as well, shocked me with his authentic renderings of heavily personal soundings tracks from Pitch Black Progress like "Mind Machine" or "Retaliator". I was also really impressed when the two came together to alternate the growling of words in that album's title track, replicating the style used on record. Both of these guys possessed skills in each other's vocal territory, too, which nicely enriched the environment.  As always, the guitarwork from specialized soloists Par and Jonas was enjoyable to watch, but blends so seamlessly into the tracks that it becomes invisible. The overall sound at Dante's did have its issues [which is nothing new], particularly that the guitars were not mixed loudly enough, so it often took time for me to recognize songs that are as familiar to me as air to my lungs. It was also quite crowded at that late hour, and hard to find a place near the front of the room, so that didn't help things much. Still, a great performance, perhaps more lively than in their previous line-up, as if rejuvinated.The setlist was quite refreshed as well, and career-spanning, with only the first three songs from Dark Matter Dimensions and a couple from Holographic Universe. Strangely enough, the bulk of the set, and particularly the encore, was comprised of songs from their second release, Pitch Black Progress, including songs I hadn't even heard them play when they were touring in support of that album. To my dismay, a couple of beloved songs from the first album, including "Reborn" and "Dominion" were not among the chosen cuts, instead being limited to the opening track "Chaosweaver". As far as I'm concerned, since they played so late into the night that I missed the last reasonable bus home, another 30 minutes worth of songs would have made the taxi fare a bit more worth it. But, perhaps they'll have another chance at showcasing their material to Helsinki at this year's Tuska?? ~ Lady Enslain |
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Full photo galleries from this gig: Scar Symmetry,
Bibleblack & Blackstar Halo
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