Sybreed - The Pulse of Awakening (2009)^{Release ID: 3264}

Sybreed has proven their worth in the heavily underrated cyber/industrial metal scene with their perfect one-two punch of Slave Design and Antares. Despite staying in the underground, they've had some of the more popular industrial/metal people working with them, such as Dirk Verbeuren (Soilwork) on drums in Antares, and Rhys Fulber (Fear Factory, Front Line Assembly) producing this album, The Pulse of Awakening!

With Fulber on board, Sybreed has maintained their sound while taking it to different horizons. And it seems like a lot of the Fear Factory influence is showing here, maybe even a bit of the djent of Meshuggah. Also the album title was inspired by Ergo Proxy.

We get the first taste of their usual sound in this album with "Nomenklatura", which is quite an amazing track to start with. Though not as much as "A.E.O.N." with incredible cyber-industrial metal genius talent! The synth-ambience really adds some that cyber effect. "Doomsday Party" is quite fun. Not as fun as that DragonForce track from 15 years later, but here, Sybreed have their own way of channeling 80s pop with its catchy chorus while staying metal. This more lively sound was first hinted in Antares, and it sounds like the coldness of Slave Design has been left behind. One track that I consider almost out of shape is "Human Black Box". As great as it is, the vocal distortion is a little too much and mechanical in an attempt to use a vocoder similar to Cynic.

Then there's the good "Killjoy", though far from great. After that, I'm reminded how excellent this album is with the aggressive violent "I Am Ultraviolence", with an explosion of heaviness to make up for those previous two slightly out-of-place tracks. The extreme strength of Strapping Young Lad being added here makes a lot more sense. The chaos is broken up by "Electronegative". The metal riffing over synth pulses should please anyone who likes industrial/cyber metal. For the next track, "In the Cold Light", who knew a depressive power ballad can fit so f***ing well in this genre? It's suitable for suffering in the despair of the bleak pandemic. The heavy final minute is so beautiful.

The more extreme influences shine again in "Lucifer Effect". It gets close to symphonic black metal, to remind some of Dimmu Borgir and Shade Empire. I love their cover of "Love Like Blood" by Killing Joke from that band's early new-wave era, with its cold feeling. The emotion can be expressed through the instrumentation more than the original vocals. The synth sounds mixed with booming guitars can blow you away more than Nine Inch Nails would ever. I like when covers stick to their band's usual style instead of just blindly following the original artist's footsteps, that's kind of the whole point of covers, I think... Props to this band for greatly standing by that rule! "Meridian A.D." has some great guitar grooves and vocals in the chorus. A bonus track before the finale is "Flesh Doll for Sale", which I like for its In Flames-ish sound. The 9-minute closing epic aspects continues in "From Zero to Nothing", sounding a bit like Tiamat's Skeleton Skeletron. In many editions, it ends with 10 minutes of ambience that I can do without.

It took a couple years for several of Sybreed's songs to grow on me, ever since I first discovered them via their Killing Joke cover, and after that, The Pulse of Awakening grew instantly to greatness. Still it can't beat the perfect starting duo. With all that, I'm prepared to take on their next album, their final one before their split. Awaken the machine!

Favorites: "A.E.O.N.", "Doomsday Party", "I Am Ultraviolence", "In the Cold Light", "Lucifer Effect", "Love Like Blood", "Flesh Doll for Sale"