[Cover photo credit to @whoisjazel @blackcardfilms]
Lybica is a new instrumental band from South Florida, blending guitar melody with “metallic crunch”. It features Killswitch Engage drummer Justin Foley on guitar and the band have announced their self-titled debut which will arrive on September 16th, 2022, via Metal Blade Records. To celebrate the announcement, the band has released the video for the new single “Manifest.”
The video was directed by Maria Jazel of Black Card Films, who also directed the video for the previously released track “Palatial.”
Justin Foley says:
I’m thrilled to announce that our debut record will be out September 16 on freaking Metal Blade. It’s fitting to share ‘Manifest’ today, as well, since it was the first song Doug [French, bass], Joey [Johnson, guitar], and I played together a few years back. Now that [drummer] Chris [Lane] has completed the band, it’s time for some shows.
Fellow Floridians can see us at Respectable Street in West Palm on August 5, and also at Fest (!!) in Gainesville, with about 200 of your favorite bands. I also suckered the KsE guys into letting us play with them in Albany on September 22, just a week after Lybica’s record comes out. We can’t wait to see where this band takes us, and we’re excited to get things started!
Foley met fellow musicians Doug French (Gravel Kings) and Joey Johnson (Gravel Kings, Barriers Now Bridges, Days Spent) back in 2016, and they had repeatedly talked about jamming together but never actually got around to it. Foley and French, both drummers by trade, often spoke about “trying something different that allowed them each to get out from behind the kit”.
French shares:
I’ve always wanted to play a stringed instrument. And bass felt natural, since it is the other half of the rhythm section.
The band eventually recruited Orlando drummer Chris Lane of A Brilliant Lie to fill its “drummer vacancy.” The founding trio soon discovered that they had something else in common besides music.
Foley explains:
The three of us are pretty big cat people. So it only made sense to call the band Lybica.
Named after a small wildcat species native to Africa that is widely considered the godfather of the modern house cat, Lybica is the first known feline species to be tamed and domesticated by humans.
LYBICA LIVE:
08/05 – West Palm Beach, FL – Respectable Street
9/22 – Albany, NY – Empire Live (Supporting Killswitch Engage)
10/28-10/30 – Gainesville, FL – The Fest
