Hyber – Waiting For Your Call

Self-released

You remember the beginning of The Powerpuff Girls? In the beautifully stylized intro, we see a silhouette of Professor Utonium combining “sugar, spice, and everything nice” in order to create the ideal daughters. Things take a turn, however, when he accidentally adds an extra ingredient, spilling a container of the dreaded Chemical X into the otherwise pure concoction. While this seems like a disastrous and irreversible mistake at first, it winds up creating a trio of superhero sisters who are stronger, faster, and more valiant than the “perfect little girls” he set out to create. I don’t know if it’s the strong use of primary colors, the sugary sweet chorus, or something else, but I couldn’t help but be reminded of the Cartoon Network classic when I first saw the video for “Waiting For Your Call” by Massachusetts alternative rock band Hyber. 

Kicking off with a powerhouse pop-punk riff, the video showcases each member in a brightly colored outfit, shredding their respective instrument against a solid-color background perfectly designed to match their fit. One by one, we are introduced to each member of the quartet: vocalist Kris Musto in deep blues, guitarist Nick Arathuzik against royal purples, bassist Gabriel Santos surrounded by crimson reds, and drummer Jeanette Abbene in sharp yellows. These colorful snapshots are contrasted when we cut to the band dressed in black playing together against a stark white backdrop.

Musto approaches the mic and sets the stakes in the song’s first verse, airing grievances against someone who is too online for their own good, constantly shifting and driving wedges between people. Unreliable and unapologetic, each time this person appears, Musto finds herself trapped in a state of suspension, even though she wishes she could forgive them. Despite the door to reconciliation being open, an apology never comes; thus, our narrator finds herself hanging on the line, forever waiting. 

As shitty as a situation like this can be, at least in this case, it led to a brilliant chorus. The song soars as Musto belts the title, repeating “Waiting for your call / waiting for your call” over a muscular guitar riff. It’s one of the slickest choruses I’ve heard all year, feeling like a combination of modern rockers like Stand Atlantic and old-school MySpace titans like Paramore and Fall Out Boy. Things climax around two minutes in when a gnarly pick slide leads to an instrumental break, complete with rolling thunder drums and an acoustic guitar, before they hit us with that sweet chorus one more time. 

If that wasn’t enough, the band back this bangin’ single with a chiptune remix of the song, turning their emotional turmoil into a bloopy 8-bit boss fight. Between these two versions of the song, Hyber prove that the only way out is through. Not only that, but sometimes there’s something cathartic waiting for you on the other side. While it feels uniquely awful to sit and wait for an apology that might not ever come, Hyber is here to show that, at least sometimes, it can make for a razor-sharp rock song.