ALBUM REVIEW: A Sign Of Things To Come – Sylosis

SYLOSIS are consistently the most underrated metal band in the UK; since 2008’s Conclusion Of An Age they’ve churned out some of the best riffs in metal, never mind the “progressive thrash” niche they’re occasionally saddled with. Frankly, SYLOSIS transcend such petty genre restraints and are, simply put, a metal band that are about to put themselves on the map again in a huge way with their new album A Sign Of Things To Come, a record whose title should absolutely be prophetic based on the quality of its contents. 

Lead single Deadwood erupts out the gate, a churning, stomping groove replete with pick scrapes, though they’re distractingly loud, what seems to be a bell chime to accentuate the seismic drumming, and a half-time bridge into a refrain of “we remove the deadwood” that’s simply colossal. Colossal is certainly the name of the game when it comes to SYLOSIS, too; songs might stick to a more mid-tempo, but they’re packed with powerful grooves and tempo changes are deployed to great effect throughout. 

It’s also immediately apparent that mainman Josh Middleton has been working on his clean vocals, as they’re deployed with far more frequency here and offer an anthemic contrast to his vitriolic bellow. The verses of the title track are sung atop sparse drum fills and ambient electronics, but Middleton switching into that roar hits like a freight train for the towering refrain. Pariahs is another deliriously heavy ripper, echoing earlier SYLOSIS with a solo that wouldn’t be out of place on Edge Of The Earth and pinch harmonics in a chugging riff that’s custom built to get grins plastered on faces and pits swirling. 

Poison For The Lost is hands down one of the best songs they’ve penned in years, its rampaging opener going for the jugular and not letting up, the chorus backed by a searing lead line as well as the pit fodder chant of the track title. “In the age of the narcissist / We speak with a clenched fist” is also one hell of a callout, another surefire winner in the mosh call stakes. Absent throws the biggest curveball, ambient synths swelling as Middleton shows off those much-improved pipes; it’s the soft, yearning ballad they toyed with somewhat on Cycle Of Suffering with Abandon, but even more atmospheric and stripped back until its eventual crescendo hits all the harder for the time taken to get there. 

If there’s one overarching feeling to A Sign Of Things To Come, it’s triumph. Though the album was entirely written and recorded before his exit from ARCHITECTS, it’s hard not to view this as a titanic comeback for Middleton and SYLOSIS as a unit. Another positive to be taken is that many SYLOSIS records were a little long in the tooth, but this packs all its excitement into a relatively lean 45 minutes. By doubling down on what already works and expanding their sonic palette to more clean vocals (the chorus of Eye For An Eye is particularly brilliant, as well as the aforementioned Absent), it makes this the best SYLOSIS record in years – and it’s hard to argue that they weren’t already brilliant. 

Rating: 9/10

A Sign Of Things To Come is set for release on September 8th via Nuclear Blast Records.

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