Scarred By Beauty
We swim EP
self-released
Within seconds of cranking this baby up it's easy to see why Danish youngsters Scarred By Beauty won the Danish Metal Awards ‘talent of the year' accolade for 2009. This, their debut EP, reveals a band with talent that belies their years and is strong enough to sit alongside some of the best extreme metal to emerge –- even from seasoned professionals –- in a long while. SBB draw their influences from a wide range of extreme metal and have brought it all together to create an utterly savage amalgam that's not unlike Meshuggah meets Death meets Cryptopsy's "The Unspoken King" album (let that Cryptopsy reference be not the death-knell, though. While it was slated by many, that was in the context of the band's former reputation for all-out slaughter). SBB have pulled off an amazing feat with this debut, albeit one that needs a bit of tweaking here and there. The main concern here is in the choice of vocals. While Hatesphere's Jonathan "Joller" Albrechtsen sports a demonic set of lungs, this band would benefit greatly if he were to reign in the screaming a touch, essentially moving SBB away from a metalcore alignment and synching them with a more generalized extreme metal outlook. The vocals on this really hit home with Albrechtsen's shuddering death growls and, used in the sparing fashion evident here, offer a gates-of-hell-opening diversion that's as powerful as bejesus. Super-tight musicianship, well thought out song constructions, and a giant-slaying production make this one of the surprises of the year. Just wind in the screaming a touch and these guys are definitely onto a winner.
- John Norby
