Interview Scar Symmetry

Interview
Henrik Ohlsson
Scar Symmetry

Lineup:
Christian Älvestam - Lead Vocals
Jonas Kjellgren - Guitars
Per Nilsson - Guitars
Kenneth Seil - Bass
Henrik Ohlsson - Drums

4/9/06
Interviewer: Karma E. Omowale

With Pitch Black Progress, Sweden’s Scar Symmetry coats the landscape with a dark layer of sound with their second full-length release. Just prior to the release date, drummer, and primary music creator, Henrik Ohlsson phones in once again to discuss the new album (mind you long before I "got" it), the band’s first opportunity of touring with some of their country’s heaviest hitters and more. It’s always refreshing, not to mention rare to be able to view the world of metal (or any other genre for that matter) without being jaded, peering at the world without rose colored glasses, to see music the only way it is, with their hearts…through eyes of babes! Talk about a concept here!! Read on…

Karma: Hej Henrik. Tack så mycket för intervjun, igen! [Phone beeps, as the gods of communication did not shine brightly upon thee, the phone dies] Of course my freshly charged phone would die right now…Henrik, please hold on. [Quickly finding the other headset the conversation resumes] Are you there?

Karma: [Caught way off-guard by the communications snafu all minor recollections of svenska went out of the window] I'm sorry!? [We both laugh]

Karma: You wouldn’t think it from my response! [We both laugh] Ja, jag talar lite svenska!

Karma: Well congrats on doing the Headbreaker's Ball tour [Hypocrisy, Soilwork, One Man Army & the Undead Quartet, and Amorphis], there's a lot of good talent on one bill. I’m sure you’re very excited about it.

Henrik: Yeah, definitely, we’re going to play on Tuesday for the first time on the tour. It will be interesting to see how the big bands do it because all of the other bands are much more experienced with touring and everything. So this is totally new for us, except Jonas perhaps who played with Carnal Forge and toured with them of course.

Karma: It’s the perfect way to break you in not to mention you being able to pick up many valuable lessons along the way! Did any of the other bands offer any infinite pearls of wisdom before going into it?

Karma: Really! So this is incredibly new to you! Wow!! What a learning experience it will all be to you!

Henrik: We can learn a lot from them because they’ve toured a lot especially Hypocrisy and Soilwork.

Henrik: Yeah, yeah, it’s nicely timed because the album’s coming out while we are on this tour.

Karma: That’s awesome indeed! Speaking of which, congrats on getting Pitch Black Progress out in record time, has press been favorable as far as reviews, etc. thus far?

Henrik: Well the album isn’t out yet so we haven’t gotten many reviews but the one’s we’ve received have been fantastic. [Lets out a sigh and chuckles] It’s been a relief!

Henrik: You never know what people are going to think when you release an album.

Karma: That’s really good to hear! In regards to the close proximity of releases between Symmetric to Pitch Black, is it something you will always do going forward or will you incorporate both and then tour more?

Henrik: Well it’s probably only in the States where the releases were so close.

Henrik: Because Symmetric in Design wasn’t really released until we signed with Nuclear Blast so it took a while for the first album to come out in the US. I think there’s like a year between the two albums here in Europe. That’s pretty close both most bands record albums once a year…

Karma: …true, it is a normal timeframe of course it would seem closer together for us. Understood. Are you satisfied with the way Pitch Black Progress turned out?

Henrik: Definitely! You know it’s always interesting because we work so fast with this band, we write the songs really fast and everything. You never really know what the album is going to be like, [laughs] until you sit down when you’re done and listen to the album that way we know what direction we’re going in. That’s always interesting!

Henrik: Uh, well we recorded thirteen songs and perhaps that was a bit too many. [Laughs] I think we perhaps should have recorded ten songs or something.

Henrik: Because everything was so hectic, it was sort of hard for us to grasp the album when we were done because there were so many songs. Everything was totally new; we had written the material right before going into the studio so it felt a bit overwhelming. It was kind of hard to, to you know, grasp the album afterwards.

Karma: Obviously since you felt having too many recorded songs hindered you, it’s rather interesting that you chose to use all of the songs for the album itself.

Henrik: No, I mean we wanted to use all of the songs because they were all good. We couldn’t tell which one was better so we recorded everything and submitted it to Nuclear Blast. Every song was on the promo except for two; all of the songs were supposed to be on the album but for some reason they kicked out two. I guess you’ll see those songs on a special release or something like that.

Karma: The lyrical theme throughout Pitch Black is very apocalyptic and kind of negative in nature, dark...corresponding with the title indeed…

Karma: What all went into deciding to write about such a bleak subject matter…

Henrik: …I have ideas of kind of a dark future and I was a bit inspired by literature like 1984 by George Orwell but also the current state of the world which, uh sort of points in that direction.

Karma: So as far the arrangements are concerned, was it approached using the same angle?

Henrik: We tried to keep it pretty basic for the most part. We didn’t really want to have a complicated song structures. We wanted to create melodic-death hit songs! [Laughs] We did some more complicated songs on this album and that was like an experiment, something that we really didn’t do the first album. We just tried it on this one.

Karma: Okay. I would love to get some lyrical explanations/stories behind for the following: "Kaleidoscopic God", "Slaves to the Subliminal", and lastly "Calculate the Apocalypse". Go! [Laughs]

Henrik: [Laughs] All right! Yeah the first one, “The Kaleidoscopic God” [said in his best Umeå accent] that’s basically about an idea that you can create your own life. You have the power to achieve everything you dream of. It’s sort of a reverse Orwell view, instead of reacting to outside factors, instead create the outside factors yourself.

Henrik: So that’s what the lyric is about. The second one you mentioned is “Subliminal”, right?

Henrik: That sort of ties into the Pitch Black Progress concept, it’s sort of goes into the whole subliminal programming that the media is incorporating subliminal messages in the stuff they are broadcasting, it sort of affects people through that. That’s what that song’s about.

Henrik: That’s the most apocalyptic song on the album I think because basically it’s about the end of the world! It’s sort a continuation of the “2012 [The Demise of the 5th Sun]” lyric on the first album.

Karma: Hmm, it all becomes clearer now. Do you believe the genre is "A zombie nation devoid of improvisation".

Karma: Well if it is, it’s at such a slow rate. A vast majority of material seems rehashed in metal period without an overabundance of creativity. What’s your take on it?

Henrik: Well maybe but I think that In Flames for example, I haven’t really enjoyed their last two albums but the latest one is pretty good I think.

Henrik: But I think it goes up and down all the time. There are a lot of good albums coming out from a number of bands that are release. Like In Flames, they go up and down all the time so I guess it has a lot to do with the current state of the band for the time being.

Karma: Do you believe you have achieved a positive progression musically from your Symmetric release to Pitch Black Progress?

Henrik: Yeah I think so, because I think we’ve managed to keep all of the key ingredients of the first album but also take it a step further with some experimental stuff and maybe a bit more diverse than on the first album.

Karma: Christian’s vocals are a lot deeper, they are a lot more menacing. Was that a conscious effort?

Karma: It seemed to me, that there were more melodic clean parts than on the new one…but that’s just my opinion.

Henrik: He sang a lot of stuff that wasn't really present on the first album. It’s going into almost traditional heavy metal vocals at times and he didn’t do that on the first album as much.

Karma: Very true. Looking back on your recordings, what have you learned about your experiences on a musical level?

Henrik: Well, I think we always learn a lot with every album because with all of the members involved. We all have different musical tastes and I think that’s really gratifying for us as musicians because we have a lot of different inputs it’s really interesting to work with this band. With every album, you get a more professional attitude I guess because of the fact that the band has progressed really fast.

Henrik: That’s been the case since the beginning with this band because things went so fast, I mean we didn’t have a label contract, we recorded one song and [laughs] and then hooked up a deal with Cold Records… They had the collaboration deal with Metal Blade.

Karma: How awesome is that! [We both laugh] What is your favorite song off the album?

Henrik: Right now I will say “Slaves to the Subliminal” because I really like playing that song.

Karma: Oh okay and of course, you’ll get a LOT of practice with the upcoming tour.

Karma: Was he left to his own devices or was there a lot of input from the band.

Henrik: Yeah because we sent some suggestions from other artists to Nuclear Blast and they weren’t really happy with it and they told us about Anthony Clarkson. Nuclear Blast had all of the contact with Anthony; we just saw the results after a while. It looked real cool and it sort of tied in to the concept of the album so… We couldn’t really resist it, because it looked sooo good! [We both laugh]

Karma: If you could commission a band or artist to do cover a Scar Symmetry song, who would do it and which song would they cover?

Henrik: That’s a funny question actually because there’s this French guy called Grum Lee or something and he did a cover of “Chaosweaver” off the first album.

Karma: Really? Oh wow! Well judging from the tone in your voice it wasn't that good?

Henrik: [Excitement really fills his voice] Yeah, it’s like playing an acoustic guitar and he’s singing really bad. [Laughter ensues] It sounds so funny you know. We would like him to do a cover on this new album as well.

Karma: Would be interesting to see what he comes up with and if he would get any better. [We both laugh]

Henrik: The fact is that he WILL do a cover off the new album! [Laughs] We mailed him a couple of times about the “Chaosweaver” and he said he would be happy to do cover of “The Illusionist”, the first song on the new album.

Karma: How will he get those growls in there? Then again if he’s slaughtering the song to begin with...

Henrik: [Laughs hysterically] I think so, he’s amazing! I can’t stop laughing when I listen to his stuff.

Henrik: First of all, this tour coming up and then we’re gonna do some other shows in the summer also some festivals. A show with Darkane in Stockholm.

Henrik: No, not really but I think we’re coming over there sooner or later as soon as we get the opportunity.

Henrik: Uh, well thanks for the incredible support. I think that the feedback from the American fans has been really amazing. I mean we get more fan mail from the States than from Europe.

We'd like to thank Henrik and the Scar Symmetry camp for making this interview a possibility!