Per Nilsson

Per Nilsson — born in Sweden in 1974 — is one of the most technically respected guitarists in Scandinavian metal, founder of Scar Symmetry and part of Nocturnal Rites since 2017. His reputation comes from Scar Symmetry, the band in which he combined melodic death metal with progressive structures and elaborate harmony — a repertoire demanding the reading of irregular metres, extended arpeggios and passages of millimetric precision. He is a guitarist of solid theoretical training, the kind who builds solos on the harmony rather than on memorised scales. That competence earned him the most demanding position available in contemporary metal: since 2017 he has been Meshuggah's touring guitarist, a band whose rhythmic writing — polymetres laid over a constant pulse — is considered among the hardest to execute in the genre. Few musicians are called for that role. In Nocturnal Rites he came in for Phoenix (2017), the record that marked the band's return after nine years idle. His presence there is that of a player of extreme technical vocabulary applied to a repertoire of direct melodic metal — the opposite of his usual ground, and for that reason a test of restraint more than of virtuosity.