Written By McKauley Kitterman
Sybreed’s reissue of Slave Design is a master class on how to remaster an already great album for the modern era. This record stands the test of time in the current slate of metal as they have for two decades. They also placed a couple goodies in there for us hardcore fans, and these goodies don’t disappoint!
Favorite Song: Bioactive (Re-recorded Version
Least Favorite Song: Machine Gun Messiah
Score: 9.7 / 10
What a year!
The year is 2004 – Scar Symmetry was forming, CheVelle releases Vitamin R (Leading Us Along) and on the seventh of Septepmber, Sybreed graces us with Slave Design.
Purchase Slave Design Here
What an album it is! We get hit with Bioactive, a song that, to me, is the essence of what I have called Cyber Metal for the past decade.
Discard your strain of mortality
Reset and display anger sequences
Improve your connectivity
Conceived in reverse of your neural patterns of hate
What a verse! Many of this series of proto-djent, prog-laden groove bands have this amazing theme of post-humanism that I just absolutely adore.
This record is a well-balanced mix of many things – bounce from the intense grooves, slick electronic breaks and extremely atmospheric with some electronics behind the instrumentation. Nominet’s signature accented singing and screaming voice (not a slight at all, I love this just as much as I headbang to these records and my favorite lyrical themes.
Allow me to backtrack for just a moment. At the time of this release your dear writer was twelve years old and was listening to CheVelle, radio rock and metal of the era. If memory serves, I’m sure the heaviest band I listened to at the time was Slipknot. I wouldn’t find Sybreed’s music until around 2014, after they already split up. I tend to do that quite a bit, actually (I’m looking at you, Disarmonia Mundi!) I was seeking out music to queue up for deliveries at my day job and had Spotify up. I just added music that sounded cool – and boy was I BLOWN AWAY by this record. I havent stopped listening since! Up until the tail end of last year, the original playlist that I had their discog on was roughly 30 hours long and was on repeat daily.
Where are we now?
Let’s fast forward twenty years from the release of Slave Design and the mad lads remaster this wonderful record with a twist – NEW MUSIC! Well, to us. As well as a re-recording of Bioactive. LET’S GO!
So – how does the remaster live up to today?
The mixes are more punchy and forward – great for a headbanger such as myself.
The drums seem to have more reverb in them – Rusted’s drumline comes to mind, toward the end and gave me chills. The bass sounds just a hair more SansAmp-y, if you catch my drift.
(My bias is showing)
I can’t help it, really.
You’ll notice that I didn’t give it a ten.
In my day-to-day, I don’t have the best headphones for tone and review work – a set of bone conduction headphones so that I can still hear my surroundings and folks that need to talk to me. On my first three or four playthroughs, there was something. I couldn’t quite understand why – until I listened at home and on my truck’s sound system. That leads us into what you all might be waiting for:
What about that new stuff???
In lieu of the Radio mixes from the original, we get a re-recorded version of Bioactive and a new-to-us track, System Debaser!
Bioactive (Re-recorded)
I’ll be honest here – on my first few listens, I was slightly unimpressed. Everything else was lining up amazingly! I was beating my head against the wall trying to figure it out! The mix seemed…. VERY spacious. Like the mix was from a 70ft wide sized space. I realized this was because of my headphones. I played it in my truck and it all made sense! My headphones didnt do the track justice. I listened on my studio-lite setup at home and what a difference. The sound quality was excellent.
What about the tune? We get a modern listen to what the boys would do in this era and it does not disappoint. More bounce, more atmosphere, the edm break makes me HYPE, and its just a top-notch redesign of what was a solid tune. Nominet’s vocals are noticeably different. They sound more sophisticated and have less of his original accent – this is also fine by me! I quite enjoyed this full bodied soundscape for the modern metal era.
Favorite portions include the natural harmonic slide into the fast chugs pre-break, the EDM section that makes me feel as if I could conquer a triathlon and the immediate brick wall half-time breakdown following.
Least favorite portions – The time I have to spend to restart the song
System Debaser (RAIN Demo)
A beatdown riff from the boys?? Absolutely.
Another bit of honesty – When this track launched, I was worried that it was a different vocalist! Nominet’s voice SOARS over this track. His screams sound like a hawk screaming into battle – reminds me of Ihsahn during the Empty music video a bit. Really cool sounding! Drop’s guitar work is amazing as always. Surprising note flutters that have always been a staple of Sybreed’s work and beautiful clean breaks. What a banger they have crafted here. The small EDM bits add to an already cool soundscape of polyrhythms and groovy drums.
What about that SICK album art??
MAN! Erik Kirchner hit a home run with this re-vamp of the OG artwork. This one is equally horrifying and even more cyberpunk than before. There’s not much else for me to say, really. I need this as a poster in my house, maybe even a displate STAT.
