Since I fucked up and did not see this has already been reviewed, take a look at what I thought could be said about this album:
<p>If you were the check the “Music” sub-chapter on the Sweden article on Wikipedia, some examples for the “strangely” popular heavy metal in this Nordic country are <b>At the Gates</b>, <b>Scar Symmetry</b>, <b>In Flames</b>, <b>Dark Tranquillity</b>, <b>Opeth</b>, <b>Dissection</b>, <b>Arch Enemy</b>, <b>Soilwork</b>, <b>HammerFall</b>, <b>Amon Amarth</b> and <b>Meshuggah</b>. Out of this distinguished list, <b>Scar Symmetry</b> seems to be the most junior, to me anyway. They only even started in 2004, but there is no denying this band from Avesta is making waves for Nuclear Blast with their three full-lengths, each of them losing a little steam in succession. Maybe this was the reason vocalist Christian Alvestam decided to part ways with the rest of the crew, maybe not, but <b>Miseration</b> is another band to feature this singer.</p>
<p>To be 100% honest, the music on <i>Your Demons – Their Angels</i> was recorded as early as 2006 by Jani Stefanovic, now on guitars, providing all of the instrumentation at the time, a couple of years prior to Alvestam parting ways with <b>Scar Symmetry</b>. The album was initially issued on Rivel Records in 2007 with Lifeforce providing a reissue very fitting with this label’s image. Not entirely Gothenburg death metal, not thrash or metalcore, <i>Your Demons – Their Angels</i> does make a good case for the “mosh meets brood” with melody and brutality well balanced. Some will dismiss <b>Miseration</b> due to Alvestam stint in <b>Scar Symmetry</b>, some will dismiss this particular album on the basis of too much groove, but <i>Your Demons – Their Angels</i> does offer a good deal of redeeming qualities.</p>
<p>The album is composed of distinct enough, well rounded songs, which last just the right amount of time, making their point, but not dwelling on unnecessary. Whereas the opener <i>Thrones</i> rips out with the drum intro and guitars locked in with the drums in one pit starting <b>Kataklysm</b>ic riff, <i>The End Designed</i> and <i>World Lethality</i> begin very introspectively, almost symphonic, with melodic guitar intros. <i>Chain-Work Soul</i> opening almost foreshadows the album’s most melodic cleanly sung chorus, while the closer <i>Scattering the Few</i> bears the stamp of <b>Autopsy</b> nasty, at least in the beginning. The songs shift tempos and tones, <i>Seven Are the Sins</i> combining blasting thrash and outward harmony. In this regard <i>Perfection Destroyed</i> could be put up as another typifying track, the verse being the rapid fire thrash from the early <b>The Haunted</b> days, with the chorus reminiscent of the latter days <b>Soilwork</b>. Add on the modern, read bombastic and slick, production, and a number of contributed wonky leads, mostly in the appropriate places, and you have a solid career beginning album for a band which just got itself its first real full lineup.</p>
<p>Christian Alvestam does absolutely nothing to embarrass himself, on the opposite supplying a very diverse vocal performance ranging from the aforementioned clean choruses (<i>Perfection Destroyed</i>, <i>Chain-Work Soul</i>) to the bottomless growls (<i>Thrones</i>) to the higher pitched almost blackened vocals (<i>Chain-Work Soul</i>, <i>Thrones</i>). Even if something begins so characteristically Swedish, but all of a sudden takes on a chugging ‘core breakdown (<i>Noctivagant</i>), you can feel that Christian is equal part exploring his inner demons and whipping the hell out of them at the same time.</p>
<p>If you thought <b>Scar Symmetry</b> was slowly writing itself into a limiting box, search for a bit more brutality in the well defined genre and want to see “barrage” as an operative word in the melodic death metal, <b>Miseration</b> will answer the call.</p>
