Antigen Shift was formed in the summer of 2000 by Nick Thériault himself, who, like his good friend and occasional co-producer Yann Faussurier (aka Iszoloscope), formerly resided in Ottawa, Canada. Antigen Shift's sound is different from most of the rhythmic noise music that is coming out as of late in that it is not so techno influenced, it depends on just 'industrialized' brutal beats. There is an organic complexity to the music, but one that has been mechanized, as if manipulated through a machine. This is pure industrial, recapturing the essence that a lot of so called industrial bands have lost through the creation of a cyborg-organic soundtrack. The beats are buried within the overall sound, giving the music a more grinding nature. When thinking of ways to describe this sound, a few contradictious terms come to mind, such as "brutal ambient," or "heavy unrelenting soundscapes." But this is where Antigen Shift's appeal comes from, that the music can overcome the simplistic labelling of the sub-genres, and create something refreshingly new. In late 2009, Nick Thériault was joined in the group by Jairus Khan of Ad·ver·sary.