Above Symmetry

The Arc of Above Symmetry

The pivots — what forced Above Symmetry to reinvent.

1. 01

   The Illusion Demos

   Back in 2005, Robin Ognedal, Nickolas Main Henriksen, and Joachim Strøm Ekelund started hacking away at Skien rehearsal spaces under the banner Illusion. Atle Pettersen joined to give them an acrobatic frontman, while Rein Blomquist took over the bass slot to lock down the rhythm section. They scraped together their own cash to cut the 2007 EP *Square Edged Circle*. It was rough around the edges, but the technical ambition on that release caught the ear of InsideOut Music, pulling them out of the demo pile and straight into a legit label deal.

2. 02

   The Fascination Street Reckoning

   InsideOut signed them in 2009 under the condition they dump the Illusion name, prompting a quick pivot to Aspera. Rather than hire a veteran producer, the band handled the desk themselves and shipped the files off to Jens Bogren to mix and master *Ripples* for a January 2010 drop. The sonics were massive, anchored by Pettersen's clean belting and Henriksen's fluid synth runs on tracks like 'Traces Inside'. It should have launched them across the European festival circuit, but a rival group waved lawyers around and blew up their identity overnight.

3. 03

   The Rebrand and the Fracture

   Forced into another legal corner, they rechristened themselves Above Symmetry and watched InsideOut reissue *Ripples* in 2011 with fresh art and the bonus track 'Trails of Clarity'. It was a second chance at a first impression, but the logistical gears ground down hard. By 2012, they pulled out of their high-profile ProgPower USA slot and called it quits entirely. The technical prog metal days were over, leaving the core members to reshape their dynamic as an alt-rock outfit named The Scheen.

Influences

• Dream Theater — The entire structural blueprint of their songwriting hinges on the keyboard-and-guitar unison lines John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess wrote into law. You hear it front and center in the frantic midsections of *Ripples*. Pettersen and the band leaned hard on the technical, multi-part prog framework that *Images and Words* codified.
• Symphony X — Robin Ognedal's neo-classical riffing relies on the heavy, driving staccato grooves Michael Romeo built his reputation on. It cuts through the mix on tracks like 'Traces Inside', balancing technical speed with melodic power metal phrasing. Without Romeo's template, that Scandinavian power-prog punch simply does not happen.
• Pagan's Mind — As fellow Telemark locals who conquered the Norwegian progressive metal scene a decade prior, Pagan's Mind cleared the path for younger regional acts. The soaring, clean vocal deliveries and spacey synth textures on *Ripples* mirror the blueprint laid down on *Celestial Entrance*. They proved a bunch of kids from Norway could make clinical prog sound arena-sized.
• Kamelot — The European melodic metal wave of the late nineties and early two-thousands formed the bedrock of Atle Pettersen's vocal delivery. You can hear the dramatic vibrato and theatrical dynamic shifts favored by Roy Khan scattered across the verses on *Ripples*. It kept the band rooted in European melodicism rather than sterile tech-metal wankery.
• Circus Maximus — Circus Maximus broke open the modern Norwegian prog scene in the mid-2000s by blending dense odd-meter rhythms with accessible AOR chorus hooks. That exact push-and-pull is the engine driving 'Trails of Clarity'. Above Symmetry followed the exact trail they blazed from Oslo into the international scene.