The New Flesh by Sylosis<\/a><\/p>\nSylosis\u2019s obsession with riffs remains intact, and The New Flesh is chock-full of them like every record before it. Middleton\u2019s vocals are as powerful as ever, and his range remains impressive. The band seems almost always to avoid the worst parts of metalcore clean singing, and there is so much pathos in his delivery that you can hear the venom dripping from every word. \u201cAll Glory, No Valour\u201d is a drumming tour de force for Ali Richardson, whose feats keep up with Middleton and Conor Marshall\u2019s barreling riffs. It isn\u2019t all roses, though, and Ben Thomas\u2019s low end gets lost in the overly clean modern metal production. While there is enough there to give the riffs proper weight, the bass only occasionally shines and is rarely present without straining your ears.<\/p>\n
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The New Flesh\u2019s creative focus only occasionally falters, and any song that has one or two individual weak spots has twice as many head-banging turn-arounds. The slightly uninspired chorus of \u201cErased\u201d is quickly forgotten amid the song\u2019s infectious groove, chest-thumping ethos, and refrain of \u201cHere\u2019s your parting gift,\u201d before it drops into delirious riffing and devastating pick-scraping. Album closer \u201cSeeds In The River\u201d features a bit of tired metaphor, but also has some of the best riffs on the record, and more than enough to keep listeners coming back. The only real blemish on The New Flesh is a tale as old as time, a misplaced ballad. While Sylosis has never shied from clean singing or big melodic swings, \u201cEverywhere At Once\u201d may be the band\u2019s first true \u201cballad,\u201d and it shows. It lacks the atmosphere of similar songs on past albums like Dormant Heart\u2019s \u201cQuiescent\u201d or the soaring riffs and bombasticity of \u201cAbandon\u201d on Cycle of Suffering. It is entirely skippable, with generic musings about missing family when touring that feel trite compared to Sylosis\u2019 usual lyrical targets and vitriolic delivery.<\/p>\n
Outside of those few stumbles, The New Flesh is nearly spotless. \u201cCircle Of Swords\u201d feels like a makeup track after dropping a ballad on the listener, giving some much-needed headbanging whiplash. \u201cBeneath The Surface\u201d kicks things off in wild fashion, \u201cLacerations\u201d is a stadium melter, and \u201cSpared From The Guillotine\u201d is one of Sylosis\u2019 most unhinged tracks in the last decade. Sans ballad, The New Flesh, is ten tracks of furious, solid, and infectious metal that feel essential in an era lacking in just good old-fashioned headbangers. The band finds a spot where the speed and technical sensibility of thrash meld with the belligerent energy of core and the hooky riffs of groove metal. For modern metal fans, Sylosis deserves a spot at the forefront. Where older acts like Lamb of God seem to have basically lost the creative energy that originally drove them, The New Flesh is here to offer up a no frills heavy metal record that leaves all pretense at the door after kicking it down. Sylosis has more than earned its seat among the modern metal greats, and The New Flesh only further cements that legacy.<\/p>\n
\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sylosis has been quietly plugging along in the background for years, a band that, in my anecdotal experience,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2246,837,32567,27571,156,161120,33748,138536,55819,157,111,139,82638,69,762,763,102976,161121,38419],"class_list":{"0":"post-290622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-2246","9":"tag-3-5","10":"tag-architects","11":"tag-british-metal","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-feb2026","14":"tag-heavy-metal","15":"tag-lamb-of-god","16":"tag-metalcore","17":"tag-music","18":"tag-new-zealand","19":"tag-newzealand","20":"tag-nuclear-blast","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-review","23":"tag-reviews","24":"tag-sylosis","25":"tag-the-new-flesh","26":"tag-thrash-metal"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Sylosis has been quietly plugging along in the background for years, a band that, in 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, it seems to fall on deaf ears. No more, I say! Lead vocalist 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 group that has seen many members over the years and near dissolution during Middleton\u2019s time with Architects. After returning to Sylosis full-time, the band is on their third release in this latest era, The New Flesh. Marking the second album since Middleton purposefully set a new direction with A Sign of Things to Come. While the title references David Cronenberg\u2019s Videodrome, is The New Flesh transformative for the band or a refinement?<\/p>\n