It’s been a minute since we last heard a new studio release from Scar Symmetry, given the first part of a trilogy Phase I: Neohumanity was released back in 2014. For fans of the band, the promise of a trilogy meant, well, three new albums planned at once. It was going to be an embarrassment of riches until it suddenly wasn’t. But what happened?
In a recent interview with Chaoszine, guitarist Per Nilsson laid it all out, explaining that there were multiple factors that caused Scar Symmetry to slow down its production, yet never fully enter hiatus status. Transcribed by Metal Injection, Nilsson says the songs are mostly written and some parts have even been recorded already.
“It’s been a really, really drawn out process. I wrote the songs [for Phase II] back in 2016 – the main [parts] of the songs were written back then. We recorded drums also in 2016, and then we recorded the rest on and off for for the next few years.
“Then in 2017, I started playing with Meshuggah and I also started playing with Nocturnal Rites. Which was nice for me because it was something that I needed at the time. I felt like doing something else after many years of doing Scar Symmetry. That sort of put the Scar Symmetry thing a little bit on the side. We never went on a real hiatus. We were in cryo-suspension or something for a bit.”
So there you have it. Nilsson needed to do something different so he just up and joined Meshuggah to kick some ass there. And even though he was busy playing with those titans, he says Scar Symmetry has been dealing with more of the business side of things like booking agents and securing legal representation after returning to Nuclear Blast.
Unfortunately, the artist that was working on the visual side of things for Phase II has gone and ghosted Scar Symmetry, so Nilsson said that release is still in limbo at the moment.
“We’ve had the album release postponed almost a year longer than what we thought because we had a sad thing happen where the artwork artist that was working on the artwork for us, he disappeared. Then he let us know that his mom had passed. It’s a really sad situation.
“We haven’t really talked about [that situation] a lot, but that postponed things a lot because then we had to find a new artwork artist. Yes, we’re currently still in a holding pattern waiting for the release date to be set.”
So yeah. New music’s still coming, it’s just… taking a while.