Diogenes Everyone knows the story of Scar Symmetry thus far. After releasing three very good melodic death metal albums that took the Gothenburg style to its limits, vocalist extraordinaire Christian Alvestam left the band due to “creative differences” (read: someone somewhere was being a dick and the best decision was to kick him out). The band went out and auditioned for two new vocalists, choosing Roberth Karlsson for harsh vocals and Lars Palmqvist for the cleans, and started recording Dark Matter Dimensions. During this time period, some videos came up on Youtube of the new lineup performing the old material, and fan reception was…not very good. The new vocalists suck, they said. The new album is going to be horrible, they said. Christian is god, they said. Well, Dark Matter Dimensions is not a very good album at all, but for entirely different reasons.

First, to get the obvious matter out of the way, the two new vocalists do not ruin this album. They don’t make it, either; far from it. But they aren’t terrible. Roberth Karlsson is actually a very good growler and replaces Alvestam’s harsh vocals competently. Lars, on the other hand, is decent, but not much more than that. He has a good voice, but doesn’t have nearly the range or emotion that Alvestam does. I could see how this would be a problem for fans that enjoy the bubblegum on Holographic Universe or who have the chorus of The Illusionist stuck in their head frequently (I’m guilty on this one), but Palmqvist’s clean vocals are not even close to being the main reason this album doesn’t reach the height of its predecessors. Get that through your heads now.

The fact that I even had to compare the new vocalists to Alvestam in the last paragraph is the problem. Why? Remember when you were a kid and you had that toy where you put blocks in their respective holes? Do you put the square block into the hole shaped like a triangle? No! It doesn’t work! Throughout Dark Matter Dimensions, Palmqvist keeps trying to emulate Alvestam, and it doesn’t work because of the obvious talent disparity. This goes straight to the songwriting, which is downright garbage here. Scar Symmetry is made up of plenty of talented musicians (guitarists Per Nilsson and Jonas Kjellgren in particular), but on Dark Matter Dimensions, it sounds like they’re on autopilot. There are no interesting riffs and only a couple of memorable choruses (Sculpture Void, for instance), two things that Scar Symmetry had been known for in the past. And of course, the vocals are just there; the band shows no interest in forging a new identity despite a key lineup change. Disappointing, to say the least. Simply, there’s nothing that makes me want to listen to this album over and over again, which is a first for a Scar Symmetry release.

Okay, so the songwriting isn’t so hot, but does the album at least sound good? NO! It sounds awful. I am ashamed that Nuclear Blast would allow Dark Matter Dimensions to be produced like this. The first three Scar Symmetry albums were engineered wonderfully, with every instrument clear and sharp, but here you have to wonder if they even touched the dials at all. The guitars are muddy. The bass is distorted and thus inaudible behind the horrible sounding guitars. The keyboards, while never an essential part of the Scar Symmetry sound, hum and buzz along, and should have just been left out altogether if they were going to be used like this. The cymbals are waaayyy too loud. They sound like the band is hitting frying pans against each other. And the vocals. Oh, man. Not only were they not used properly, but there’s this annoying echo behind them. Roberth sounds like he’s growling into an empty can of tomato sauce. What’s the point of this?

The conclusion that I come to at this point is that Dark Matter Dimensions was released too early. Here’s the deal: this was Scar Symmetry’s fourth album in five years, the one before it being hailed as album of the year by a lot of critics. The band just lost its popular vocalist, whom the sound was centered around. I don’t know if they wanted to keep going right away, or if Nuclear Blast was bitching at them to release a new album, or what, but the logical decision would be to wait a little while and put more work into it. If your band gets a new vocalist (or two), and they have different talents than your old vocalist, wouldn’t you want to work to incorporate them instead of just forcing them to do something they can’t? And if you can’t do that, then get different vocalists! You’re Swedish! It makes too much sense. Dark Matter Dimensions screams “I’M RUSHED!” in every single way.

The two star rating “Fans/collectors only” was invented for this album. It was destiny, I tell you! For Scar Symmetry fans, this album is probably still worth it (just make sure you get the other four first), and for collectors, well, they’re all nuts to a certain degree anyway. For everyone else, don’t bother. Dark Matter Dimensions is a fluke, a dark period in a band whose career has been very bright otherwise.