By BRENDAN CRABB
AFTER a nine-year gap between albums, Swedish melodic death metallers Scar Symmetry have returned with new full-length The Singularity (Phase II – Xenotaph) (to be released via Nuclear Blast on June 9). The second chapter in a planned concept trilogy, it’s decidedly progressive, and perhaps their heaviest release yet. The songs explore themes of neohumanity, artificial intelligence and the “technological singularity from a dystopian point of view”.
Guitarist and mainstay Per Nilsson gave us the lowdown on the new album, becoming a father just prior to the pandemic, his stint as touring guitarist for Meshuggah during Fredrik Thordendal’s hiatus, the possibility of undertaking their first Australian tour, and more.
Hot Metal: It’s been nine years since The Singularity (Phase I – Neohumanity). I can only presume there’s multiple reasons for that?
Per Nilsson: “Yeah, I suppose there’s a bunch of reasons. We started writing the album, writing and recording most of it in 2016 and 2017. And at the end of 2016, I had grown really tired of playing live with Scar Symmetry. And sort of the entire situation because we never managed to sort our shit out, so to speak. We were poorly managed, and that is because I was managing. And that’s not my strong suit. So it was always very stressful. And whenever we went out on tour and things broke, gear broke, and the flights were cancelled and was just like a shitshow. Like, (it was) some fault of mine, but also (it was) I don’t know, celestial shitstorms, something.
“So by the end of 2016, I was feeling like I probably wouldn’t play want to play live with Scar Symmetry any more. I was like, ‘I think we’re going to be a studio band. But I would love to be able to tour with some other band, where I don’t have to be in charge, be responsible for anything but my guitar playing’. And I suppose the universe provided me with what I asked for, because I was asked to join classic Swedish power metal band Nocturnal Rites, which I did. We did an album and some shows.
“But shortly after they asked me I was asked to start touring with Meshuggah. I joined two of my favourite bands and got to tour and have a lot of fun with them. And I got to experience that thing where I wasn’t in charge of the gear or the crew or the budget or anything. And I got to do that for a few years.
“And while I was doing that, Scar Symmetry was sort of put on hold a little bit, even though we did some shows. Every now and then we kept working on the album also. Very slowly, just kept things going. But it was like Meshuggah was such a big deal. So it was hard for me to book a lot of shows with Scar Symmetry, in case something would show up with Meshuggah. With Nocturnal Rites it was a different thing because there was one clash where I couldn’t join them and then they had just a replacement guy for that show. But I didn’t want to have a replacement for myself in my own band.
“So then in 2019 I became a dad, and then the pandemic came. So that’s basically what happened. And then coming out of the pandemic, and Fredrik returning to Meshuggah, it seemed the perfect time to get the band back together full-time. Full-time and full energy ahead, and (we) finished up the album, got a new record deal, got everything sorted. All the business stuff, all the shit that I seemed to be unable to get sorted before, I managed to get that sorted because we got ourselves a new management and legal representation, all kinds of stuff like that, that really makes it easier. And I sort of learned that I picked up that from being inside Meshuggah; being the big band they are, and the way they conduct their business was very informative for me.”
HM: I became a father for the first time in 2019 and less than a year later we were in a pandemic. It was an interesting scenario to be a parent for the first time while trying to navigate work life and a pandemic.
PN: “For me it wasn’t all that bad, because we were in the baby bubble. When your life is about diapers and bottles, and all of these things that puts you outside of regular everyday life or something. I mean, it can be a very different experience.
“So for me and my wife, we were already in that kind of thing where we had already started working from home. She was on parental leave. And I was still working a bit, but I did pretty much everything from our little apartment we had. So we were still already in our little bubbles; the pandemic didn’t change that too much. But something that I felt like (after) becoming a dad was that, the kind of perspective when you are suddenly not the most important thing any more. And it gives you perspective on life and stuff. And I was feeling like, the time we have in this life is finite, and you need to be careful what you do with it. And you become a parent, and suddenly, you don’t have all the hours of the day to yourself any more. There’s someone else that you want to hang out with (laughs).”
HM: Your priorities shift immediately.
PN: “Yeah, so suddenly, those hours you have, it’s important what you do with them. And for me, it was, I used to be producing bands and did stuff like that, which is something that I enjoy, but it takes a lot of time. And it’s like, I’m working on someone else’s career. I’m working on realizing someone else’s music and touring with these other bands. Even though I love the music, and I love all the people and it was a amazing situation. I started also feeling, ‘it’s not my music. It’s not my legacy’. And when it’s like … I want to be sort of remembered for my own thing. I want to leave behind my own legacy. And I suppose for my son, when it’s time for me to check out, this is what I left the world and my son, and so on. And I wanted to… It started to feel really important to have that be my own thing.”
HM: Were there other factors that reignited the spark?
PN: “There were a number of things, because I was so used to being stressed out about Scar Symmetry. And I can only really blame this on myself and the way I function as a human being. But there were some really key moments, and one was when Fredrik was coming back to Meshuggah. The record label, Nuclear Blast, they knew of this. They had advance info on this. They contacted me and because we fulfilled our last deal with the last album, they just contacted me and were like, ‘we heard Fredrik is coming back, are you going to start up Scar Symmetry again? Because if you are, we are super interested’.
“And I mean, Nuclear Blast is the biggest label for what they do. So to have that, to get that from them felt really inspiring to get the business end of things sorted. And then we got ourselves a new manager. We had been working with the Finnish booking agency for Finland only for a bunch of years and become very good friends with the owner. She’s been doing some really great work with us in Finland and one day, she asked me, ‘do you need help with anything else? I’d be happy to help you out with other stuff’. And then I was like, ‘could you sort out a website? Could you help me plan these kinds of things?’ And she was like, ‘yes, yes, yes’. And she just got everything done. The next day, things that I had been procrastinating for a long time, she just got it done. Everything on time, and in order and with all good vibes.”
“So that was also something that really helped me because like the creative part and the vibe in the band, that’s never been a problem. We have a great chemistry and all of that. So when I realised the business end of things was gonna be figured out and I got help with it, that just made it possible for me to get everything else in order, to finish up the album and all of that.”
HM: Obviously, this is a sequel to the first album, which had a heavy over-arching concept and is part of a planned trilogy. Tell us about this concept.
PN: “I suppose it was in 2012, we were talking about it after a gig, we were discussing what we wanted to do. Jonas (Kjellgren), the former second guitar player, he was leaving the band. He didn’t have time for it, or his heart wasn’t in it any more. So I realized that I needed to write the music for the next album myself, and I was thinking, ‘isn’t it boring to do albums? Like aren’t albums a thing of the past?’ That was like what I thought at the time.
“So I asked the guys, what do you think? Should we make it a trilogy of EPs instead? It’ll be like a really long album, but spread out on EPs. Maybe each part could be 25-30 minutes or so. And everyone dug the idea, and I had the idea to make it a concept thing about the technological singularity, and what happens beyond that.
“Our drummer Henrik (Ohlsson), who writes all of the lyrics, he came up with a three-part synopsis outlining what each phase would be about and then we just started working on it. So even before I had written even one note of music I had this idea that the first part would be more melodic, very melodic and progressive and have a little bit of an upbeat feeling to it. And the second part would be more dark and gloomy and more aggressive in certain parts. And so Phase II would lean more towards that side of the Scar Symmetry sound, to explore the dark corners of it a little bit more.”
HM: Full disclosure, I was a fan of Scar Symmetry, but after Christian Älvestam (vocals) left in 2008, I felt like the band took some time to find its feet again. However, I think the two vocalist dynamic really works now. Did you find that a little difficult at first, to master working with two singers?
PN: “I don’t know if we felt that it was difficult. I guess it’s more of a process. It’s like if you listen to the evolution of the band, from our very first album to (2008’s) Holographic Universe, there’s quite a bit of progress in between those albums. And I mean, I know there are some people who think the very first album is our best one, and everyone has their favourite. There are people who think (2009’s) Dark Matter Dimensions is the best one. Even though those two albums are our least popular.
“So when we parted ways with Christian, the thing that was hard was actually parting ways because it was such a messy time. And I don’t think he was very happy being in the band. And everything he did was showing us how unhappy he was. And we were very unhappy. And it was just like, it was, everything was conflict. So we had to end the relationship and let him go. Because things just turned very toxic.
“So we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do. And we already knew that we wanted to have two guys, because that was something that we had already been talking about for quite some time. Even when Christian was still in the band, because it’s so difficult to do what we do with only one singer. On an album obviously you can do whatever you want. But when you play live and you have to switch really fast in between this super low-pitched dark growls and then some kind of high-pitched melodic things, that’s super taxing for the voice and it sure was for Christian then. So we had already had the thought that maybe we would need to be have two guys.
“So when we parted ways, it was just what we wanted to do. We found Robert (Karlsson) and Lars (Palmqvist), we auditioned them, and it was, we dug their voices, and they are childhood friends, they’ve known each other forever. So they came like as a package deal because they came with the chemistry of their own. They come from the same place, so they sort of have the same accent, the same Swedish-English accent, which is kind of interesting. And yeah, they just came with great singing and great vibes. We just instantly hit it off.
“So and then we worked really hard on that first album we did with them (Dark Matter Dimensions). And then I guess we tried to see what the band was gonna be so, much like the very first album we did I think we sort of threw shit at the wall and saw what stuck. And so I think there are some really great songs on that album, but maybe there are… That album, it goes everywhere. So that would be maybe my own biggest criticism of it, that the songs are not like, I don’t feel them as a unit as much as the other albums.
“It feels like it’s spreading out in all kinds of directions.
“And also, one thing that I’ve been thinking of is that those first three albums with Christian, for me, that’s one era of the band. And then we started the new era with Dark Matter Dimensions and (2011’s) The Unseen Empire. And then Jonas left. And we’ve now done Phase I and Phase II, which is the third era of the band where I became the sole composer of the band. So that’s like the third era.
“And now I’m feeling because I’m about to start writing for the next album and now I have all these things that has happened; there’s a whole bunch of years that have passed since I wrote Phase II. And I’ve toured with other bands as I saw the industry and saw music from another perspective, I became a dad, and then we have the pandemic and getting back together now and fallen back in love with the band and our situation. It feels really exciting to start writing new music again. Because it feels like it’s the start of the fourth era of the band.”
HM: So the next album will be Phase III, then?
PN: “I mean, that would be the logical step, I suppose. The thing is that, as I told you, we had a plan for what Phase I and Phase II (would be), and actually, Phase III, what each album would be, a general vibe of it. And I’m feeling, I’m not sure I have that in me right now. Because there are… (that’s) not a direction that I would like to explore that for the moment, the thought of going in that direction. I don’t want to spoil it too much. But it’s a direction that it’s not what Phase III needs.
“So the thought of doing that excites me more than doing Phase III. So what I’m gonna do is, I’m just gonna see what’s gonna come out when I sit down with the guitar and the keyboard and the computer and everything. I’m gonna see what comes out. And I’m gonna put the result into folders. And have one that is Phase III, and one that is that other thing. And I suppose I’m just gonna see which one gets full first and let that be the thing. Maybe I write two albums and record them at the same time. That could also be cool.”
HM: Just to wrap up, could this album cycle feature the first time we see Scar Symmetry live in Australia?
PN: “I have learned to be a bit careful with stuff that I say because, for example, I promised Phase II to be released for several years now. “Oh, yeah. Surely, next year, for sure”. You know, back in 2018 or something, because I thought that and and we’ve had high hopes to come to Australia in the past, but it never happened.
“But we are in talks with an agency in in Australia, so I have higher hopes than before. But it’s hard to make a promise. I’m feeling pretty sure that it could happen in 2024. We for sure would love to come there, and I’ve been told that we actually have a few fans there.”
