Sybris April 29, 2009

The quartet Sybris (a deliberate misspelling of a hedonistic ancient Greek city) crafts a sound that's a fusion of ambient art rock, 80s heavy metal and, oddly enough, folk. Dual guitars interlock with a powerful bass backbone, all driven by swirling and lifting drums. To complete it, there's Angela Mullenhour's acrobatic voice that acts as the band's two-headed catalyst - she has the ability to either ground their sonic chaos or run the whole thing right off the rails. At times, the kinetic Sybris sound invokes Slayer fronted by Edie Brickell and at others it feels more like the lovechild of Belly and Swervedriver. The band even manages to produce songs that could have wound up on the album of an imagined My Bloody Pixies supergroup.