Here's an interesting little nugget from Switzerland's Sybreed, their late 2004 release Slave Design. A few years back, guitarist/keyboard player Drop left his former band Rain to form Sybreed, a new band that would combine industrial and progressive metal sounds of bands like Fear Factory, Soilwork, Strapping Young Lad, In Flames, and Meshuggah, with experimental and elecronic styles of Nine Inch Nails and Front Line Assembly. The result is a pretty unique sound that while very heavy also has a strong electronic or techno feel to it. Lead vocals are handled by a guy named Ben, who, depending on the song, performs well on clean melodic vocals, harsh metalcore screams, and processed ambient whispers. He goes for the whole shebang on a song like "Decoy", hitting you with every vocal style in his arsenal while the brutal guitar riffs, bubbling synths, and insane drum work of Alex slam your head against the wall. It's amazing how these guys replicate the rhythmic fury of bands like Meshuggah and Fear Factory so well. In fact, "Synthetic Breed" almost sounds like a long lost Meshuggah track from one of their late 90's albums, and contains some great clean and harsh vocals. The guitar riffs overall are very well crafted, heavy and at times technical, but never overly fast or too slow, and always played with plenty of groove. The band even comes close to melodic death metal on the catchy yet maniacal "Machine Gun Messiah", complete with maddening growls and machine gun rhythms. Then there's the futuristic "Rusted", a song that sticks in your head with its great chorus and oodles of electronics to go along with plenty of headbanging guitar riffs. Real good stuff.
This is an album that doesn't let up one bit, and keeps you intrigued all the way through and wanting more when it's over. I'll be real interested to see where these guys go from here, and indications are that they have a new release planned for mid-2006. With the promise shown here on Slave Design, I'm thinking that this could be a very big year for Sybreed, but time will tell.
Track Listing
1. Bioactive
2. Reevolution
3. Decoy
4. Synthestic Breed
5. Next Day Will Never Come
6. Machine Gun Messiah
7. Take the Red Pill
8. Rusted
9. Static Currents
10. Critical Mass
11. Reevolution [Syntax Airplay Edit]
12. Decoy [Radio Slave Edit]
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