Sylosis have been playing quietly in the background for years, a band that, from my anecdotal experience, many have heard of but few listen to. When I go to shout about the greatness of albums like Monolith or Dormant Heart from the highest peaks, I seem to hear nothing back. Not anymore, I say! Singer and guitarist Josh Middleton has led the band since Edge of the Earth. As the last remaining original member, he became the de facto songwriter and soul of a band that has seen many members over the years and nearly dissolved during Middleton’s stint with Architects.
After his full return to Sylosis, the band is on its third release in this latest era, The New Flesh. Marking the second album since Middleton deliberately set a new direction with A Sign of Things to Come. While the title refers to David Cronenberg’s Videodrome, is The New Flesh transformative for the band or an improvement?
Dormant Heart was the final chapter in a trio of flawlessly flawless albums that deftly combined thick thrash, modern core sensibilities and orchestral touches with heroic guitar that rivaled the best bands out there. After 2020, the band set a new path, and The New Flesh offers a continuation and evolution of their previous record. For a band with so many former members, their latest album shows no signs of decline. Clearly, Middleton’s direction was a north star for the band, and nothing on The New Flesh will surprise longtime fans.
Sylosis‘s obsession with riffs remains intact, and The New Flesh is packed with them like every previous album. Middleton’s vocals are as strong as ever, and his range remains impressive. The band almost always seems to avoid the worst pitfalls of clean metalcore singing, and there’s so much passion in his performance that you can hear the venom dripping from every word. “All Glory, No Valour” is a tour de force on drums for Ali Richardson, whose feats keep pace with the barrel-heavy riffs of Middleton and Conor Marshall. It’s not all rosy, though, and Ben Thomas’s low frequencies get lost in the overly clean modern metal production. While there’s enough there to give the riffs the right weight, the bass only shines occasionally and rarely exists without tiring your ears.
The New Flesh‘s creative focus only wobbles occasionally, and every song that has one or two isolated weak points has double the twists. The slightly uninspired chorus of “Erased” is quickly forgotten amid the song’s infectious groove, the chest-thumping ethos and the “Here’s your parting gift” chorus, before it drops into delirious riffs and destructive pick-scraping. The album-closing “Seeds In The River” features a slightly weary transition, but it also has some of the record’s best riffs, and more than enough to bring listeners back. The only real flaw on The New Flesh is a story as old as time, a misjudged ballad. While Sylosis have never shied away from clean singing or big melodic turns, “Everywhere At Once” may be the band’s first true “ballad,” and it shows. It lacks the atmosphere of similar songs on earlier albums like “Quiescent” from Dormant Heart or the explosive riffs and grandeur of “Abandon” on Cycle of Suffering. It’s completely skippable, with generic musings about the lack of family while touring that seem trite compared to Sylosis‘s usual lyrical targets and caustic delivery.
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Beyond those few missteps, The New Flesh is almost pitch-perfect. “Circle Of Swords” feels like a spot of makeup after leaving a ballad on the listener, delivering a valuable headbanging whiplash. “Beneath The Surface” kicks things off savagely, “Lacerations” is a stadium-melting song, and “Spared From The Guillotine” is one of Sylosis‘s most unhinged tracks of the last decade. The ballad without headbangers, The New Flesh, consists of ten tracks of frenzied, solid and infectious metal that feel essential in an era lacking only good old-fashioned headbangers. The band finds a point where the speed and technical sensibility of thrash combine with the martial energy of core and the hooky riffs of groove metal. For modern metal fans, Sylosis deserve a place on the front line.
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While older bands like Lamb of God seem to have largely lost the creative energy that once drove them, The New Flesh is here to deliver a straightforward heavy metal record that leaves every pretense at the door after rejecting it. Sylosis have more than earned their place among the modern greats of metal, and The New Flesh merely further cements that legacy.
