Scar of the Sun ~ A Series of Unfortunate Concurrencies

Scar of the Sun
A Series of Unfortunate Concurrencies
2011

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A couple weeks back, I found myself stuck in traffic during a heavy rainfall listing to some doom metal, and I was HAPPY! It seems like an oxymoron, but it's amazing what good music can do to soothe your road raging soul. In this instance, the music that provided the soundtrack to my traffic jam came from Scar of the Sun's first release "A Series of Unfortunate Concurrencies".

Scar of the Sun are not strictly purveyors of doom metal. While they do have many elements of the genre in their songs, they also employ a heavy dose of traditional and power metal, with just a pinch of melodic black to boot. I find it hard to narrow down similar bands, but I do think that fans of Katatonia, Opeth, and Sonic Syndicate should find Scar of the Sun to their liking.

The opening song "Disposable" starts off with a slow and ominous riff followed by a keyboard line that you might find on the soundtrack of a corporate employee training video. However, if the music on a corporate training video was this good, employees wouldn't be so reluctant to attend training. Speaking of the keyboard, it plays a very nice supporting role, and the tone and riffs, when they do come to the forefront, are reminiscent of what you might hear on a H.I.M. song. Other songs of note would be the heavy title track, the melodic "8th Ocean Dried" and the traditional metal leaning of "Disciple of the Sun".

While I make mention of the keyboard I don't want to overlook the other guys in the band. The vocals are deep and clean, with the occasional black metal growl. The guitars stick mainly to harmony parts, and while I happen to really like the crunch in their tone, they do widen out their sound when one is playing a nice clean picking pattern while the other chugs along with power chords. I guess this is all standard fare for bands that play in the doom genre, I just happen to enjoy the way it all sounds when these varied components come together in a decent way.

There really isn't a ballad on "A Series of Unfortunate Concurrencies", but I think it would be nice to hear one, as they come close on occasion. Also, there are many aggressive moments on the cd, it would be nice to hear a band with doom leanings tear it up with some speed on occasion.

Overall, Scar of the Sun has a good CD on their hands with "A Series of Unfortunate Concurrencies". I don't think that you'll have to be stuck in traffic during a thunderstorm like me to enjoy the music, but it wouldn't hurt the ambiance.

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Live Long and Rock Hard,
SpaceKev


Space Kev's Rating: 3.25 out of 5