Scar Symmetry vs. Solution .45. Who Ya Got?

Awhile back I did a review of Scar Symmetry's new album "Dark Matter Dimensions" and gave it a "meh' rating. I've come to enjoy it more as time has gone by but guess what? Christian Alvestam finally got past his ADD and released an album with his new band Solution .45. This was the first project announced back in 2008 and with his 5 billion other side projects it was thought that .45 would be the one to get released. And verily it came to pass. So I listened to this thing and figured instead of just doing a bland old review or even a real time review of it, why not stack these two albums together and see who made the better career move. Christian for leaving or Scar Symmetry for having to hire two vocalist to replace him. So without further ado I bring you Track by track,Head to Head.

Track 1 The Iconoclast vs. The Close Beyond:The Iconoclast is a uneven mix of melodic death and power metal. I can see it being a hit with the FFDP set since it even has a breakdown in the middle. The Close Beyond starts out like a Disturbed song on speed. Alot of groove in this first track.I'm not seeing any difference from Alvestam Symmetry. The Close Beyond is less poppy but not by much. The growls are more brutal in The Close Beyond.
Point goes to Solution .45.

Track 2 The Consciousness Eaters vs.Gravitational Lensing: Eaters has a more brutal rhythm section this track. The vocals are hitting more traditional metal elements. Lensing is a straight split between brutal and clean voxs. This track is the least memorable of any of them so far. I feel like I've heard this before.
Point goes to Scar Symmetry.

Track 3 Noumenon and Phenomenon vs. Through the Night Kingdomed Gates. Goddammit with the long song titles. I'm a blogger but that doesn't mean I want to type that much. Phenom's turn to be an unmemorable track. The effort to be melodic on the vocals is pretty average. Gates starts pretty soft but hits this riff at the start that's pretty bad ass reminiscent of latter day Testament. The clean vocals sort of take the steam out of it though.
Point goes to Solution .45.

Track 4 Ascension chamber vs. For Aeon's Past:Chamber is a pretty damn good track. Probably the best one on the album so far.Almost epic in nature. Aeon's is going for 80 percent brutal and 20 percent clean. It's got a heavy groove but overall not really outstanding.
Point goes to Scar Symmetry

Track 5 Mechanical Soul Cybernetics vs. Lethean Tears: Ok...Mechanical starts with a psychotic mind fuck. Defiantly the most original track from either albums.This track is frenetic on every level including the vocals. Tears on the other hand brings it all down quite a bit with a ballad. Almost butt rock level but this band has more talent then Winger or Firehouse ever did. Both tracks bring a change of pace but for enjoyment factor
Point goes to Solution .45

Track 6 Non Human Era vs. Bladed Vaults: After that last track from .45 Era does a wake the fuck up call with a brutal vocal barrage. I'm pretty sure I've heard the clean vocal phrasing on this track on a Symmetry song in the past. Vaults is more brutal between the two tracks. Neither of them are really wowing me but finally the pattern is broken.
Point for Solution .45

Track 7 Dark Matter Dimensions vs. Wirethrone: Dimensions is hitting the speedy brutal factor here. Nothing fantastic here. Wirethrone is more memorable of the two with an even mix of soft and brutal passages. It's actually one of the better tracks on .45's album.
Point for Solution .45

Track 8 Sculptor Void vs. On Embred Fields Adjust: Void I think is my favorite track on this album. I think. By now these cd's are starting to blend together. Unremarkable track from .45.
Point goes to Scar Symmetry

Track 9 A Parenthesis in Eternity vs. Into Shadow: Eternity starts with a good ballady intro then goes all formulaic with speed riffs and unremarkable clean vox over the top.Shadow starts off with a slower heavy groove riff with orchestration.I think for the music alone I like Shadow better.
Point goes to Solution .45

Track 10 Frequency shifter vs. Clandestiny Now: A 3 minute song against a 16 minute song. Christ. The epic length better be worth it. Frequency is a solid little track.The first 3 minutes of clandestiny is pretty standard fare thus far. I'll be looking for tempo changes and shifts and how interesting this monster is going to be as it progresses. 6 minutes in and I can already tell this is longer then it needs to be. By about 10 minutes.
Point goes to Scar Symmetry

Track 11 Radiant Stain vs. Spirit Side Dreaming: Kick ass intro for Radiant Stain.Pretty solid track by Symmetry.Little bit of effects before the chorus. Spirit starts off out the gate with brutal. Delves into standard Symmetry/.45 style of song.
Point goes to Scar Symmetry

Holy crap that was tiring. Well it was close but it looks like the edge goes to Solution .45 at 6-5. What I find funny is that if SS and Alvestam had just taken 5 or 6 of their best songs respectively and slapped them on one cd this would have been a pretty kick ass album. Neither side really did anything different from previous works except for a 16 minute snoozefest and a trippy hardcore song. Alvestam's vocals seem to have deteriorated a bit on this release but it's still on par with what two guys are doing at the other camp. Word of caution, there is a version of this album floating around with trance remixes of some of the tracks. It's fucking horrible. Oh and I still hate the name Solution .45. I'm going to leave this now with the new Symmetry video for Iconoclast and the trailer for Aeons Past.