Album review: Sylosis – The New Flesh

A couple of months ago, Josh Middleton was talking to Kerrang! to announce The New Flesh. Among other things, looking back on his two-decades-and-change as the driver of Sylosis, the guitarist pondered on what it is that’s kept him going. “This is always going to be me,” he mused. “If push came to shove, I’d obviously put my kids and my wife over anything. But doing this is definitely my life. There’s just no other options.”

Though never a band short on energy, this set-in vigour and sense of purpose is particularly zesty throughout The New Flesh. And though not exactly in need of an overhaul, there’s something refreshed, regalvanised here, a sense of feeling old magic stirring again, even considering the band’s recalibration and renaissance that started with 2023’s A Sign Of Things To Come. The New Flesh, indeed.

Partly, this is down to ‘The Shredding From Reading’ taking the path less technical (for them). They haven’t turned into The Ramones, and Josh and now-guitarist-and-Conjurer-bassist Conor Marshall’s riffs are still impressively nimble, but frequently it’s about sheer power, going straight for the throat and into the pit.

The chunky on-off thrashings of opener Beneath The Surface are an early black eye, matching speed with chonk, exploding with vigour. As snorting and angry as it is, it also sounds like an absolute riot. Same goes for Spared From The Guillotine, which charges in like prime Slipknot, with not a moment of fat on it. The title-track, meanwhile, boasts a Testament-styled yob-shout in the chorus that actually sounds like it was recorded while dodging stagedivers. It’s all fantastically urgent and alive.

When the brutality takes a breather, there’s still plenty to be had. Lacerations, with its slower, big chorus asking ‘Are you alive or is it just a chemical feeling?’ is a massive sing-along, while the walloping riff to Erased has a slight but satisfying whiff of Mastodon’s loose heft to it, and Adorn My Throne throws in a couple of black metal-ish moments. Even when the metal is gone on the acoustic-led Everything At Once, a song exploring Josh’s feeling about his family while he’s away from them on tour and asking himself if he’s actually doing the right thing, the rawness remains compelling.

‘Sylosis make good album’ isn’t exactly a headline. But for a band now seven albums in to sound as urgent and up for it as they do is something to celebrate. Because when, as Josh says, there’s no other option, there’s no choice but to go in with as much raging energy and clear excitement for it as this. All hail the new flesh.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Trivium, Machine Head, Lamb Of God

The New Flesh is released on February 20 via Nuclear Blast