THE SCINTILLA PROJECT – The Hybrid

Scintilla is a science fiction thriller dealing with an elite team of mercenaries hired to carry out a covert operation to secure genetically engineered human and alien specimens deep within a former Soviet state that hit the silver screens in the spring of 2014. Saxon’s Biff Byford was introduced to the movie’s producer, Lionel Hicks, and they agreed a concept album inspired by the events of the movie was in order. Biff gave drum kit duties to Hicks, and was also joined by Anthony Ritchie (bass) and Andy Sneap (guitars) to form The Scintilla Project, and their album follows suit by being entitled The Hybrid.

Byford’s voice of course sounds very familiar on this album, but The Hybrid being a conceptual piece comes across sounding very Epic in a Scandinavian-Viking way.  The musicianship is solid, but the lyrics and vocal style of Byford is very reflective and subdued … the parallels to Saxon are few overall, which makes this both an enjoyable album and a “strange” change-up for Byford at the same time. The Hybrid is an interesting listen and the novelty is worth checking out, but this likely won’t be an album that you’ll revisit time and time again.