Bjørn´s Top 10 list for 2011

 2011 was once again a great year for Metal in my opinion. This year was more of a epic Progressive Metal, treasure and gem finding for me there have been so many albums and new bands I have found this year than really any other so far I think I can safely say most metal heads have enjoyed this year because through other metal heads I found some other nice bands but every body was happy until Morbid Angel came along and shit on every ones hopes and dreams hmm. Well You will not find Morbid Angels new hip shit record if you want to call it that on my top 10 no.

1 Paul Wardingham - Assimilate Regenerate

There has not been a day I have not listened to this album, It is a branching out on the style of Scar Symmetry´s Holographic Universe with not stop shred. Overwhelming melodic death metal and atmosphere. When I really lose my self in this album I really do feel in some since colors on what they might feel like I mean shouldn´t epic space metal be like that?

2 Leprous -Bilateral

This was a very emotion provoking album with its different styles of music and mood changes.

One thought that came to mind when I wrote my review for this album was it made me think of if Modest Mouse did a extreme progressive metal album haha and I mean that. I think Frank Zappa were still alive to this day we would have loved this album. The band worked along side Ihsahn on this album so you know there is some extra creative genius in there some where.

3 Mournful Congregation – The Book of Kings

It came as a shock to me that Mournful Congregation put out a new album on the 1^st of November it slipped right under my radar. Thankfully through our very own Jon told me about the albums release and I gave it a listen and I was blown away It was a much better come back that their previous record The June Frost. The album is really dark and ambient.

4 Anubis Gate – Anubis Gate

I have only been into this Danish Progressive Metal act for about 6 months now This was a pretty common Melodic Progressive Rock/Metal album but it made my top ten because each songs moody segments where they kind of hit you hard in the heart if you really get into the progressive sine like I do and also Henrik Fevre´s vocals there is something powerful and magical about his vocal tone. This also being my favorite release from them by far.

5 Dystopia Na! - Syklus

I found this band while searching around on youtube just over the fall. It is a really moody Post-Black/Doom Metal album and being really one out of a small hand full of post-Black Metal bands I like there are calm moments of new age atmospheres and melodic acoustic guitars and harsh slowed down black metal this album a great gem for any post-Black Metal fan. Underground bed room Black metal at its best.

6 Andromeda - Manifest Tyranny

Another shock to see I am a big fan of these guys one of the best Progressive Metal bands to inspire me musically and lyrical and this album might be their heaviest album to date and maybe their darkest to the lyrical content which being subjects on the New World Order and all the problems that the world is facing today. One thing I loved is through parts of some of the songs they play clips of world leaders saying some really scary things that really make you think is there really some one pulling the strings in world affairs.

7 Scar Symmetry – The Unseen Empire

Ah yes another anti New World Order album makes the list. I waited day in and day for this album to come out and at first after listening I was kind of disappointed in it but after I did my review and gave it a couple of more listens and it grew on me. The two new singers had improved than the previous release Dark Matter Dimensions but I still think in some ways that album is still a little better than The Unseen Empire, The lyrics to this album when it comes to the subject matter more up front and out there to say the least.

8 Taake - Noregs Vaapen

This one album I have been waiting for this year and Taake always delivers the goods. They still remain to the true Norwegian Black Metal sound though there were some interesting influences on this album with the banjo, the album brought back memories of the old Darkthrone sound. This also was a much better improvement than the previous self titled album I thought. Also with the band only singing in Norwegian I found it interesting that there was a english sound clip of a girl saying I hope we have the coldest winter ever.

9 Shattered Skies – Reanimation

Wow a Djent band made my top 10 list strange huh ? Well to say the least this Djent band Shattered Skies is more Groove Progressive Metal even though some people say that is what Djent is any way but this does not have any break downs and less of that bright Djent tone it is more melodic and colorful and the vocal melodies are just fantastic the production is ok but the musicianship makes up for where the production fails in my opinion. This group has a lot of talent and deserves a little more notice I will be looking forward from more from this band.

10 Galleon – In The Wake Of The Moon

One of my all time favorite if not truly my favorite Progressive Rock band Galleon released this new album on the 26^th of November it caught me off guard since their last album was released in 2007 it seemed like they were running out of ideas. When I got this new album I found it to be a small come back to what they have done in the past or at least in the mid point in their carrier. I did like every song on this album Mr. Murphy and In The Wake Of The Moon are my favorite songs by far. I think a little more could have been done with this album but the album is different in its self it has a lot of progressive rock and pop melodies mixed in every but still remains moody.

Runners Up/ Almost made it on my top 10 list.

1 Abnormal Thought Patterns - Abnormal Thought Patterns EP

2 Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn of Events

3 Devin Townsend Project – Ghost

4 Vintersorg – Jordpuls

5 Opeth – Heritage

What I hope for in 2012:

Well I hope to see some new stuff from Mirrorthrone, up coming music from Christian Älvestam, Soilwork, and I hope to God Winds puts out a new album in 2012 they are much over do for a new release. Who knows what else is in store for in 2012 when it comes to music only time will tell.

-Bjørn

Scar Symmetry - The Unseen Empire

Scar Symmetry seems to be pushing out albums every other year and maybe that is a good thing but it can also be a bad thing. The band released a preview of the album by releasing the song Illuminoid Dream Sequence a month before the albums release and I was pretty happy with what I heard in the song. Progressive Death Metal with killer melodies and fantastic song structures ! I thought it was going to be a ground breaking album like Holographic Universe was for them but well it was not like at all. I was a fan of Dark Matter Dimensions and I think there could have been more time spent on creativity on that album it very much did have its own style and sound to it then the last 3 albums much like this new album The Unseen Empire but more or less. The opening track to The Unseen Empire is The Anomaly I was kind of like huh ? Upon hearing this song for the first time because with each Scar Symmetry album it seems like they have always had great ideas for opening the album of there albums but this one is like a mix of hard rock and just Metal with some death metal vocals in it here and there. It took me a few listens to that song to like it..

About half of the album just seems like not much time was really put into thought and trying to getting all of the ideas out clear enough more like generic ideas really. The album is about topics on the N.W.O. (New World Order) not the wresting N.W.O. But the Conspiracy Theory as much of their albums are which I see and have found evidence to believe that it is true. This album deals with the Global Elite on what they do to humanity, how they do horrible things to humanity, use fear to control the population, and so forth. I fear as though these guys are running out of ideas for songs and well they have put out a new album every other year so.. The main clean singer Lars his vocal melodies are not has pitchshifted and power metal to fuck on this album as well and Roberth his death grunts are just brutal as ever. But as I have said this album is really just some hard rock with Metal and death grunts thrown into it I did like the first 7 tracks but the last 2 I do not like as much. So give it a shot for your self give it a listen. I really hope the next effort is much better. 

-Bjørn 

A Interview with HENRIK OHLSSON from SCAR SYMMETRY

Thank you Henrik for taking time and doing this Interview with us ! How are you doing ?

No problem, it`s my pleasure. I`m doing fine, been doing mail interview all day but that`s allright- I actually kind of enjoy it. We`ve had interview-sessions on and off over a month now and we`re kind of in the process of finishing it off with a bunch of mailers. It`s all a part of the promotion of the new album.
 
How long have you been playing the drums, Do you play any other Instruments, and What got you into music ?
 
I`m 35 years old now and I started playing when I was 13. I discovered KISS when I was 8 years old and I`ve been into metal ever since. I listened to heavy metal for some years and then I got into thrash metal and later on death metal. I went to a process of getting more and more extreme in my musical taste. What got me playing in bands was basically thrash and death metal, thrash was huge when I was 13 and when I was about 15 years old, in the beginning of the 90`s, the whole death metal boom happened and I was hooked by that and decided to form a band. Aside from playing drums I also play guitar. I wrote all the music for an album called ”Dispiritism” by my band Altered Aeon (r.i.p) released in 2004 and I recorded all the instruments (except solos) for the Altered Aeon demo in 2003. I`ve also done lead vocals for three full-length albums- Theory In Practice ”The Armageddon Theories”, Theory In Practice ”Colonizing the Sun” and Mutant ”The Aeonic Majesty”.

How do you get inspiration to write the lyrics ? You read the book Holographic Universe for the album Holographic Universe but what about the previous albums and the new album The Unseen Empire What books, People, movies/documentaries, and research or if any of that does that play a roll in the writing process for you ? If so can you please explain ?
 
Well, first of all I haven`t read the book ”Holographic Universe”, I stumbled upon the ideas presented on the ”Holographic”-album when I researched quantum physics. But I`ve seen interviews with the author of ”Holographic Universe” and I`ve seen references to that book in other works so I know what that book is about. I have a general interest in these topics and pretty much every Scar Symmetry album circulate around the same topics lyrically even though the perspective changes from album to album. The whole thing about the Illuminati etc. that is very present on the new album is actually something that has been present in the lyrics on every album, yet in a more subtle way perhaps. I have my own personal views and opinions about all this but I look to authors like David Icke, who is very extreme in his theories, for inspiration. David Icke is a perfect source of inspiration when writing lyrics for metal around these subjects because of his extreme approach. Other than that I read books on history, both official and alternative ideas about history and put the pieces together. I also read a lot about new science, alternative science that hasn`t really been accepted yet by the mainstream. And of course I`m into occult systems, I`ve been studying that for a long time. All of this fit together in a very mindblowing way and I`m writing from a point where science and magic kind of blend into one. For this album I focused a bit more on books and articles about the Federal Reserve and the supposed cults that stand in the shadows, safe from the eyes of the mainstream media. I asked myself questions like: ”Why are certain things displayed in the news and others completely ignored?”. The more you think about stuff like that the more you get fired up to write about The New World Order and related things because it`s obvious that there is a lot of manipulation going on in the world. To which degree we`re being manipulated is something that everyone has to decide for themselves but if you go into the rabbit-hole you`ll see possibilities that it might be deeper than you think.

How did you become aware//awake to the New World Order ?

When the process of globalization really started to charge forth it was impossible to ignore that some kind of New World Order was emerging. I saw the term everywhere, David Icke talks about it a lot of course but I can`t remember exactly when I heard about it the first time. It might have been in Icke`s book ”The Robot`s Rebellion”, I read that one in the late 90`s. Anyway, I find all the theories surrounding the Illuminati and the New World Order intriguing and it`s easy to write about that from different points of view. Most of the time I go with the weirdest stuff possible and sometimes, but not often, I keep it somewhat ”down to earth”. I want the lyrics to have this otherworldly vibe and that`s why I enjoy writing from extreme points of view most of all.
 
When your not fighting Global Government with the music of Scar Symmetry what do you like to do in your free time ?

I`m not actually fighting globalization, whatever you fight becomes stronger since you add energy to it an intense way. I just write about it with the intent to ”enlighten” AND, don`t forget this, to entertain. Some listeners aren`t really interested in the lyrical subjects as such and just want cool stories and that`s allright. The lyrics are just entertainment for them which is cool with me. Others are more genuinely interested in the lyrical themes and that`s even better. But I don`t want to be seen as some sort of activist or a preacher of anything since I am first and foremost just a musician and a lyricist with a special approach. I`m not a preacher and I don`t pretend like my ideas hold the ultimate truth or anything like that. Anyway, in my freetime I`m doing pretty normal things: hang out with my family, write, read, watch movies, work out (something I`ve started doing recently. Always hated it but now I found I actually enjoy it), drink alcohol every now and then and write songs for different projects that I`m involved in.

Do you guys plan on doing a long tour in support of The Unseen Empire like you did for Dark Matter Dimensions ?

Yeah, we did several tours in support of ”Dark Matter Dimensions” and eventually we`ll go on tour in support of the new album. The album will be released at the 15th of April and we`ll start the festival season right after the release party at the 30th of April. We`re booked for several festivals and events this summer plus some dates in Australia so we have to concentrate on that first and foremost. After the summer we`ll do either a European or an American tour, we haven`t decided yet. We`ll also do some dates in South America before the end of the year and then we`ll continue promoting the album through shows next year.
 
Thank You for your time and talking with us ! Do you have any final words or anything you would like to add ?

As always I would like to thank the fans, your support is immensely appreciated and we hope you like the new album! Check our facebook/myspace-sites for the latest info! 



-Bjørn