Album Reviews : Synthetic Breed – Catatonic

Play the first 20 seconds of Synthetic Breeds “Catatonic” (opening track to the album of the same name) to any metal head and you could forgive them for asking you if Fear Factory have a new album out that they didn’t know about. Such a Re-Occurring Thought Pattern should not be forgiven however; ignorance of this magnitude is to be treated with a complete Modification and Replacement of Inner Soul Circuitry followed by re-educating the Fragmented Human Structure that remains.

Synthetic Breed describes them selves as a “Cyber Metal” band but what exactly does that mean? Well I’m going to cheat a little here and use the bands own words: “The concept of cyber-metal alludes to mankind’s identity becoming ever more intertwined into the fabric of the machine it has created, increasingly losing its humanity in that process.” So cyber metal is, to Synthetic Breed at least, defined by its themes rather than its style and I tend to agree! However, the music has to capture the mood.

Synthetic Breeds first full length album “Catatonic” possesses all the ingredients for a kick arse cyber metal album. The aggressive high energy music is driven hard by furious, mechanical and technical kick loaded drums. The guitar work is catchy and chunky and played with cyborg precision and is complimented nicely by well chosen mechanical and digital sounding samples. The subject matter too is perfect, with song titles like “Neuro Connectivity” and “Simulated Inception” this music assimilates perfectly with the world portrayed by the great Cybrpunk genre authors like William Gibson and Bruce Stirling.

Is “Catatonic” as great as the sum of its parts though? Fuck yes! I may be a little biased because of my love for anything cyber but I don’t think that’s it. “Catatonic” is a damn good, damn solid and damn heavy album regardless of genre and I highly recommend it to any metal head.

“Catatonic” will leave you catatonic! 8.5/10

Band: Synthetic Breed
Album: Catatonic
Year: 2008
Genre: Cyber Metal
Label: Faultline Records
Origin: Melbourne, Australia
http://www.myspace.com/synbreed
http://www.syntheticbreed.com

Track Listing:
1. Catatonic
2. Neuro Connectivity
3. Fragmented Human Structure
4. Chaos Theory
5. Techno Sedation (Reviewers Choice)
6. Modification and Replacement on Inner Soul Circuitry
7. Simulated Inception
8. Cybernetics
9. Autonomic Deficiency
10. Re-Occurring Thought Pattern
11. Inconclusive Resolution

Reviewed by Dan ‘Franky’ Berryman