Scar Symmetry Consider 'Death Jovi' Nickname a 'Compliment'

Posted on Jun 9th 2011 12:00PM by Amy Sciarretto Comments

Nuclear Blast

Swedish melodic death metal band Scar Symmetry have been referred to as "Death Jovi" in the metal press. However, the rockers are far from insulted by such a moniker. In fact, they quite like it!

"We regard the term 'Death Jovi' as a compliment because that's essentially what we want to do musically on some of the songs," drummer Henrik Ohlsson told Noisecreep. "We're big fans of both Bon Jovi and death metal, so what the hell?"

"We like the diversity of being able to do anything musically," Ohlsson continued. "Early on in the band's existence, we made sure that we wouldn't corner ourselves by strictly doing songs that belonged to one specific genre. We were never supposed to be a death metal band, per se. We want to play music that has heavy metal influences, thrash metal, death metal, progressive stuff and even non-metal influences."

While Scar Symmetry refuse to pledge allegiance to any genre, their dedication to metal remains unwavering. "We want to explore the world of music without restrictions even though our hearts belong to metal music first and foremost," Ohlsson admitted. "Some people are annoyed by that kind of attitude because they are in love with genres and not music itself. It doesn't matter. We're just playing music that we like and that's what we'll continue to do. I think it's thanks to all the different influences that we've been able to put out so many albums, almost one per year, without ever experiencing writer's block or anything like that. We've released five albums in seven years without ever compromising in terms of musical quality, which is pretty unusual these days."

With the bands latest album, 'The Unseen Empire,' Ohlsson says the band has stuck to its Swedish melodic death metal guns. "I think we've stayed true to the trademark sound of Scar Symmetry and we've evolved as songwriters for sure," he said. "We experimented a lot with different keyboard sounds on this album, as always. If you listen carefully, you hear all kinds of weird stuff in the background. The lyrical concept has a different angle compared to previous releases, even though it's still in the same area in terms of topics. I think we've done an album that stays true to what we've done before but still explore new territory. The album has been well-received by the media and fans all over the world, and we're very confident about this release."

'The Unseen Empire' is out now.

Watch the video for 'Noumenon and Phenomenon' by Scar Symmetry

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