From their Facebook page, "Meet LYBICA, a dynamic instrumental three-piece force from south Florida that seamlessly blends flavorful guitar melody with powerful metallic crunch. LYBICA features Justin Foley of KILLSWITCH ENGAGE alongside Doug French and Joey Johnson of GRAVEL KINGS. Their debut album is presented here, and contains nine songs.

"Ascend" is the first. It begins slowly, with delicate melodies, and begins to open like a blooming flower on time lapse photography. Swelling along the way, it finally takes off after the half-way mark. Seguing into "Resonance," which begins with a more raucous and energetic sound. The heaviness of the sound is tempered by more delicate moments of softer melodies. The contrast brings some texture along with it. "Palatial" features a slow moving riff with some meaty bass notes. Like Joe Satriani, the leads tell the story. It has a smooth and mellow groove, but there is a heavy bottom end. "Oktavist" is a heavier song but not without a strong sense of melody, shifting between chugging passages and more melodic ones.

"Ferment" is a slower and heavier song, with lamenting leads amidst the heavy rhythmic accents. "Manifest" goes the other direction, with soft and charming melodies out of the gate, suggesting that the band is not a one-trick pony. This rompy and energetic number displays some really nice positive tones. The next two songs are short and sort of run together into one. "Linnaeus" and "Voltaic" are softer, sadder numbers with all of the beauty of the first snowfall of the season. But there is also an ardent power to the song, and as it moves along, it begins to build through the end. "Charyou" closes the album. It's a lengthy seven-minutes that has that flowing melody with the metallic crunch that the band talked about. The ending is absolutely gorgeous.

This was a solid listening experience for me, and I always appreciate band members breaking out of their current mold and trying something new. This being their first album, there is room for growth. Maybe adding some more textural elements would help broaden their sound...keyboards, additional leads, things like that. It's good, but could be better.