While Industrial Metal music had been craving a niche for itself late ‘80s with bands like Ministry, the genre grew from there with KMFDM and Nine Inch Nails, into the ‘90s with others like Fear Factory and Rammstein. Then as the 2000s hit a new crop of exciting acts emerged like American bands such Static-X and Spineshank, but in the European market you have a slew of other unique entries such as France’s Dagoba, Denmark’s Mnemic, but also Switzerland’s Sybreed.
Formed in 2003, Sybreed was made up of Vocalist Benjamin Nominet and Guitarist Thomas “Drop” Betrisey, along with Luis “Burn” Da Silva Cruz on bass and Alex Anxionaz on drums. A powerful group of players, the band quickly went to work with forming an identity all their own which unified Metal with Electronic music. What some may lump in with Industrial Metal, what Sybreed did was certainly a new hybrid where thick guitar grooves, mixed rough and haunt clean vocals, and different song structures. Something they once dubbed Death Wave by the band themselves, they were prime to make an impact on the scene back in 2004 with the release of the debut album Slave Design.
A record that may have not broken into the mainstream, but one that made a huge impact upon an international fanbase of Metal listeners, Slave Design featured a blistering selection of Industrial Metal songs that penetrated deeply due to a haunting dystopian mood. Thanks in part to Nominet’s extremely unique voice which goes from the sound of a tortured soul screaming to be released, into a sorrowful, dark singing, Sybreed had something special.
A great first impression, the band followed up in 2007 with Antares (where they first made it to the USA on tour with Threat Signal), 2009’s The Pulse of Awakening, before 2012’s God Is an Automaton. Sustaining a strong following, unfortunately within a year of God Is an Automaton release Nominet opted to leave the band in October of 2013, thus resulting in their break up.
So, where has Sybreed been in the years to follow? Well, Drop has been a member of the mighty Samael since 2015. This is while Nominet has turned his attention to other musical projects such as Lucifer Ascending. Two focal points of Sybreed from the beginning, seemingly out of nowhere the band’s social media pages came alive earlier in 2024 with some posting. Did this mean there would be a reunion? Not quite, but it did mean there were plans for a 20th-anniversary edition of Slave Design.
Teased some more over the last few months, the new edition of Slave Design finally arrived on October 4, 2024 through Aggregate Media. Not just a rehashing of the original album, the entire record is remastered by Jens Bogren (famous for working with everyone from Opeth to Paradise Lost), plus features a re-recording version of “Bioactive,” and a previously unreleased track. If that is not all, it has also been completely repacked with newly redesigned cover art by Erik Kirchner Art. The artist behind the 2004 eye-catching cover, Kirchner’s redesign states true to the original, but in an interesting new fashion.
All very cool, this 20th-anniversary edition is available to stream, but more importantly can be purchased in a CD digipak, or a planned vinyl copy as well. So, with these details presented, the next obvious step is to look at the new recordings a bit more closely. First of these is the re-imagined edition of “Bioactive.” Notably different, the electronic elements are more upfront and this creates an entirely different feel.
Enjoyable, there is no hiding the biggest moment is hearing the newly released “System DeBaser” for the first time. Reportedly one of the earliest songs ever composed by Sybreed back in 2003, it was shelved and never released. That was until it was recorded for the first time in 2023 and added onto this re-release. With this in mind, the song has ample energy, intense vocals, and a fitting example of what Sybreed is capable of.
All matters are taken into consideration, can fans expect more new music from the band? Only time will tell, but it certainly seems their heart is there; because they openly addressed the quality of the material used to print the digipaks. Not satisfied, they vow to restart the production of the digipaks from scratch and also stated that three different vinyl colors and two different shirt designs are in production. All things to look out for, Cryptic Rock is impressed with the quality of the remastering, new artwork, and unreleased song, giving the 20th anniversary edition of Slave Design 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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