### Sonic Syndicate: Only inhuman

#### 13/06/07 || Lord K Philipson

I just came home from a month’s touring doing session guitar with Swedish legends and friends Grave. The reason I bring this up is becoz when you are on tour you get handed all kinds of fucken magazines. 99% of them are written in some fucken language one can’t read, so you end up looking at the pictures instead. In pretty much each and every one of these magazines Sonic Syndicate were featured. And in each and every fucken magazine the chick in the band looked great. Probably thanx to Photoshop. Big deal. A chick in a band nowadays is as revolutionizing as Peter Forsberg always being injured. Big deal.

These fuckers obviously won some goddamn competition thing and got signed with some fucken label becoz of it, since that was the prize. Big deal. Later on I read about these Swedes (this time in a language I can actually understand – Mongolian) in some magazine. And the chick still looked pretty damn hot. Big deal.

I decided to give them a shot since they were featured fucken everywhere anyways. Hopefully for a good reason, though I definitely had a feeling it wouldn’t exactly live up to the mad coverage of them. So, to sum this up before moving on… they got signed by some major label and the chick looks hot. Big deal.

It seems like In Flames changed their moniker and one of the guys had a sex change. Yep, that’s exactly how this sounds. It’s a rip off (or a tribute probably if you ask the band themselves) of the Flames’ sound we all know. A decent rip off, sure, but nonetheless lacking every bit of an own identity these guys really need. I don’t think Sonic Syndicate could fucken spell “identity” if their lives depended on it.

The vocals differ a bit from In Flames, but the ideas are exactly the same with harsh yellings alongside so-so clean ones. And the electronic features backing everything up could be on any of the later IF albums. It’s a carbon copy of In Flames’ sound and it seems like Sonic Syndicate are very fucken content with that since they do absolutely nothing to avoid it.

The only problem is that In Flames do this better than Sonic Syndicate. In Flames are catchier, their vocals are a hella lot better, their aggression is more aggressive and the melancholy is more honest. The only difference with these 2 bands is that Sonic Syndicate got a fucken goodlooking chick in the band.

Big. Fucken. Deal.

Great production but a copy cat it is and if you like In Flames – you’ll like this. I dig it while waiting for the next IF album. And by the way, there sure are a lot of fucken “Sjunnesson” in this fucken band.

One last thing, Sonic Syndicate should be fucken stoned to death for destroying the fantastic TATU song “All about us”. Hideous. I’ll always hate you, Sonic Syndicate, for this malevolent act.

6,5/10.

- Information
- Released: 2007
- Label: Nuclear Blast
- Website: www.sonicsyndicate.com
- Band
- Roland Johansson: vocals
- Richard Sjunnesson: vocals
- Roger Sjunnesson: guitars
- Robin Sjunnesson: guitars
- Karin Axelsson: bass
- John Bengtsson: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Aftermath
- 02. Blue Eyed Fiend
- 03. Psychic Suicide
- 04. Double Agent 616
- 05. Enclave
- 06. Denied
- 07. Callous
- 08. Only Inhuman
- 09. All About Us (TATU cover)
- 10. Unknown Entity
- 11. Flashback