The Scintilla Project - The Hybrid
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Published August 26 2014
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*=Staff's pick
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Scintilla (One Black Heart)
Beware The Children
Permanence*
Some Nightmare
Angels*
Pariah
The Damned And Divine*
Life In Vain
No Rest For The Wicked
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Genre |
Heavy Metal |
Biff Byford
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Vocals
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Tracks |
9 |
Andy Sneap
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Guitar
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Running time |
53 Min. |
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Guitar
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Label |
UDR/ADA |
Anthony Ritchie
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Bass
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Release |
18 August 2014 |
Lionel Hicks
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Drums
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Country |
England |
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Keyboard
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Producer |
Biff Byford, Andy Sneap |
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Similar artists |
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First of all, to rule out any possibilities of misunderstandings,
I have to say that this album is not the soundtrack to the Lionel Hicks
produced movie Scintilla, but it was inspired by it. The album's final
track, Saxon's No Rest For The Wicked, is nevertheless featured in the
movie and what we get here is the audio version as it's featured in
the movie. Since I rarely see any motion pictures and if you're interested
in what this feature has brought to this album, I suggest that you check
it out for yourselves, because I don't intend to put more effort in
that matter.
After all these years and all those Saxon records, it
feels a little strange to hear Biff Byford doing vocals on an entire
record and not having his regular band backing him up. He has done some
great guest appearances with various artists in the past, but this feels
totally different. For those who want to know, and I reckon that's probably
the most of you, the record The Hybrid doesn't sonically resembles Saxon's
works, except that both parties basically are dwelling in the heavy
metal vein. Biff doesn't really come out as strong as he usually does,
still I think that it would have been quite unnecessary for the vocalist
to create something that he does on a regular basis with his main band.
The Scintilla Project basically presents some kind of
lighter version of heavy metal that involves a few moments of progressive
elements with keyboards added to get the right mood in that direction.
I also sense that this effort is less direct and less powerful than
what we are generally given through Saxon. The songs generally don't
hold the high standards that I'm looking for and in fact there are only
three songs which I find attractive, marked as Staff's pick above.
The remaining tracks aren't simply accurate and sharp
enough to have my full blessing. Most of them don't come out as something
striking, which at the end of the day makes this record end up as just
something decent. I wouldn't say that the songs are bad in any way,
but with Biff's presence, I was naturally hoping for a greater outcome.
Performance
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Originality
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Production
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Vocals
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Songwriting
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Summary
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