Detailed Reviews [Myhybris - 2008 - "The Sweet Melody of Resilience"]

Prolusion. The French outfit MYHYBRIS was founded back in December 2003. In 2006 their first effort was issued, the EP "Pretty Scares". Late in 2008 their full length debut was released, titled "The Sweet Melody of Resilience".

Analysis. Amongst the stated influences for this act are bands like Porcupine Tree and Dream Theater, and they describe their songs as Pink Floyd-ian compositions. And as a band's own description of their music goes, this is a pretty accurate one. In terms of stylistic expressions I guess Porcupine Tree has been a major influence, as the band is pretty much all over the place musically on this production. Atmospheric mood segments, jazz-tinged interludes and majestic segments of a symphonic nature are regular embellishments throughout this affair, blended with heavier, hard hitting parts of a distinct progressive metal nature. This latter aspect does not sound like Dream Theater, which is a nice change after having listened to quite a lot of productions rather heavily influenced by that act lately. The keyboards are arguably the main instruments on this venture, being ever present throughout this album. Whether these are atmospheric background noises and samples or grandiose layered soundscapes, keys and synths are a vital ingredient to all aspects of this band's creations. The bass also gets a more important role than usual; especially in the more mellow segments it provides a lot of the musical foundation that in other cases is provided by the guitars. Obviously the latter is instrumental (sic) in all progressive metal-tinged parts of this production, while the drummer perhaps gets to be a tad more adventurous than many others are in the use of percussion in addition to serving the rhythms in a neat and at times somewhat quirky manner. All in all this is a multi-faceted, eclectic experience; compelling as well as pretty unpredictable, which is a good thing in my book. One of the most surprising aspects of this excursion is that it is a concept creation – the entire album is one continuous composition, but one with hardly any vocals present. Only the title track contains singing, while the vocal aspect elsewhere is limited to brief spoken parts and background vocals. Fans of concept albums can enjoy a detailed outlining of the concept in the booklet though; as long as they understand French, that is. The main drawback with the recording is its length, however, and in these times where more and more acts try to cram in as much music as possible on their albums this one is the exact opposite, clocking in at just over 26 minutes in total this is actually more of an EP than a full fledged album as such and for some it may be deemed as too short.

Conclusion. Liberal-minded fans of progressive metal who appreciate a multitude of musical expressions and a band focusing on mood and atmosphere rather than showcasing instrumental virtuosity should find this venture to be quite intriguing. As long as the limited amount of content isn't bothersome, this album is well worth acquiring – and although it's not a challenging venture as such it is rather adventurous and unpredictable.

OMB=Olav M Bjornsen: Agst 17, 2009
The Rating Room