Either Sweden has been investing in a secret cloning program, or Christian Älvestam is the busiest musician in metal. Yes, I am referring to the former singer of Scar Symmetry, the current singer of Miseration, and now, the singer of breakout act Solution .45. Along with his often-partner, guitarist Jani Stefanović, Älvestam is in a dizzying number of active professional bands (two of the other notables being Torchbearer and The Few Against Many).

If Wikipedia research can be trusted, it would seem that Älvestam joined Solution .45 in the late stages with many of the For Aeons Past songs being already fleshed out by the rest of the band. I’m supposing that this tidbit of information is out there to convince reviewers such as myself to not say the following: if you liked Scar Symmetry with Älvestam, you will definitely like Solution .45, because the two bands are essentially the same.

By that I mean big, meaty guitar riffs that any rocker will love, a back-and-forth between catchy clean singing and guttural death metal vocals, and extremely hooky songwriting. This approach is a double-edged sword in my view, because Scar Symmetry die-hards will love Solution .45 and jump right on board, but anyone who is getting tired of this kind of thing won’t get through the album once.

The unique elements that Solution .45 bring to the table include a heavier dose of keyboards, lower tuning (are they using 8-string guitars?), and more bite in the riffing (most likely a carry-over influence from Miseration).

There’s not much else bad I can say about Solution .45. They write catchy metal songs, and the album’s production is top notch. Knowing the caliber of these musicians’ other efforts, I can’t even criticize them for being too commercial, as the sales from this project will probably fund all their other bands for the next few years. I just can’t in good conscience suggest that you run out and buy For Aeons Past on the spot, because if you follow the Swedish metal scene, you have heard this before.

3.0/5