The Resistance are an extreme metal supergroup featuring musicians who have previously been in bands such as In Flames, Hammerfall, Dimension Zero, The Haunted, Carnal Forge, and Facedown. Scars is their debut, and without a doubt there's going to be plenty of high expectations from this outfit, mainly due to the presence of guitar legend Jesper Strömblad, who laid down so many classic riffs on all those great In Flames records over the years. Sadly, I can't help but declare a good portion of Scars somewhat of a disappointment. It's not on Strömblad or axe partner Glenn Ljungström, as both these guys do their part to deliver some crushing riffs here, especially on the raging "Expand to Expire" and the old school death metal of "Clearing the Slate". Instead, it's the one dimensional, often times hardcore styled bellows from Marco Aro that bring parts of this album down. It's not that his vocals are bad, but they just don't vary from song to song, and for a a group of songs that are trying hard to deliver classic death metal savagery, he's going more for a hardcore attitude and it just doesn't fit or work here. It's a shame, as there are some inventive riffs and catchy grooves here (see "(I Will) Die Alone") not to mention much brutality, but the vocals bring things down a notch in my view.
Track Listing
1. Clearing the Slate
2. Your Demise
3. To the Death
4. Expand to Expire
5. Imperfected
6. I Bend - You Break
7. The Serpent King
8. Eye for an Eye
9. My Madness
10. Warmonger
11. Scars
12. (I Will) Die Alone
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