Scar Symmetry Discuss Illuminati and New World Order on ‘Unseen Empire’
Scar Symmetry's new album 'The Unseen Empire' deals with topics that seem to have been ripped right from the pages of a Dan Brown novel. Many contemporary artists are fascinated by secret societies and Biblical bloodlines, and Swedish melodic metal bands like Scar Symmetry are no exception.
"Lyrically the album deals with the Illuminati and the New World Order," said drummer Henrik Ohlsson. "I explored different theories around these topics and found a lot of variety in perspective, so to speak. On some songs, I deal with the politics of the Illuminati and how they're executed in order to advance the agenda of global domination. On other songs, I'm writing about the occult connections that are closely related to the shadow government and the elite bloodlines that secretly rule the world."
"A song like 'Extinction Mantra,' for example, is about the mindset and the politics of the Illuminati," he says. "It's a damn heavy track with lot of different parts going all over the place within the song, but the focus is heaviness on that particular tune," Ohlsson said. "The song 'The Draconian Arrival' is more about melody but it still goes places musically." He counts the arrangement of the song as cinematic, while lyrically dealing with the occult aspects of the Illuminati.
Scar Symmetry took a very unorthodox route to arrive at the finished product that is 'The Unseen Empire.' The drum tracks for the album were recorded first, after which Scar Symmetry embarked on a five-week US tour, leaving the record in an obviously unfinished state. That's an unconventional move, since most bands get in the zone when recording and don't like to be interrupted. But Scar Symmetry threw caution to the wind.
"We had a deadline and everything to follow but we felt it was an important tour, so we just went ahead and did it," Ohlsson said. "When we came home five weeks later, we had to deal with the consequences of that because we hadn't really recorded anything on tour, even though the plan was to do so, and [guitarist] Jonas [Kjellgren] had broken his wrist! Jonas actually left the tour halfway through because of that injury, so he had two to three weeks to heal before he was supposed to lay down the rhythm guitar for his songs. Insane, I tell you."
Kjellgren proved to be somewhat a mutant when healing. "The weird thing was that he healed pretty quickly and was able to record his rhythm parts and his solos, which is f---ing unbelievable. He broke his arm in December 2010 and recorded guitars in January 2011, how is that possible? Anyway, we made the deadline and now the album is out. Phew!"
Watch the video for 'Noumenon and Phenomenon' by Scar Symmetry
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