LIVE REVIEW: Sylosis @ O2 Forum Kentish Town, London
British heavyweights SYLOSIS celebrate the release of their new album, The New Flesh, by merging with HEAVEN SHALL BURN’s Heimat Over Europe tour for the most mega night of metal mayhem to have ever graced the O2 Forum Kentish Town. At least, that was the positive spin on why they joined forces. Originally clashing not only with each other, but also with the mighty DEFTONES down at The O2, led to torn fans and the need to make some tactical changes. Someone really needs to tell London’s booking agents that good communication is the key to more than just happy relationships.
The stage resembles a drum graveyard, or, to the less morbid members of the crowd, a music shop – so overwhelmed it is by the two become one tour kits. But as soon as 4:30pm hits and the San Antonio-hailing hardcore thrashers LIFE CYCLES take to the stage, thoughts of their cramped quarters are eviscerated. “Where the fuck are my Texas two-steppers at?” bellows vocalist Jeremy Cuevas. The feistiest of the youths among the unexpectedly large crowd answer the call and bust out some two-stepping moves to the sludgy riffs, filthy bass, and hardcore aggression. LIFE CYCLES’ continuously scrappy efforts to get the crowd moving are further rewarded by a small circle pit and a crowd surfer launch for the finale. These ruggedly upbeat Texans make an impression for what turns out to be their first-ever London show; let’s just get them on a smaller bill next time.
Rating: 7/10
Dutch deathcore crushers DISTANT stomp onto the stage for round two with attitude and ferocity, determined to wake the afternoon crowd the fuck up. Alan Grnja, arguably the most impressive vocalist of the night with a range that could peel skin from the devil’s eardrums, unleashes a scorching screech, turning the atmosphere from hard-edged to laced in horror. “Last time I checked, this venue wasn’t a fucking museum,” spits out Alan, as there are still far too many crowd members digesting their meal deals and pacing themselves. The youthful René Gerbrandij is unrelenting behind his drum kit, machine gunning out double bass patterns like his life and somebody else’s death depend on it. And thank satan for DISTANT’s sound guy because every unhealthy dose of brutality they nudge out of the speakers is a vibrating attack on your ribcage.
Rating: 7/10
Another batch of Texans, FROZEN SOUL, are up next. Bathed in a constant stream of icy blue lighting, they ignite the crowd’s passion with their bone-crushing, justice-fuelled brand of death metal. Chad Green sings like a half-deranged ice warrior ready to devour anything that gets in his path, which might be the London crowd if they don’t “stop being fucking weird and start moshing.” FROZEN SOUL were recently featured across a slew of music outlets for the release of their new song, Absolute Zero, which screams out their stance against authoritarianism and the monsters running it. It’s 53 seconds of glacial rage at the “crushing, authoritarian, fucking corrupt ICE,” and gets the sledgehammer punches rolling in the moshpit. With their choppy rhythms, abrasive roars, and copious amounts of synchronised headbanging, FROZEN SOUL ensure that the only cold felt in the room is the breeze from the night’s biggest circle pit so far.
Rating: 8/10
Technical death metal masters REVOCATION bring their sci-fi tales and dystopian nihilism wrapped in a tight, formulaic riff package, along with a lot more hair on frontman Dave Davidson’s head than anyone is used to. The four-piece embody the futility they scream about with a stiff formation across the stage and a certain soullessness to their playing. “I like how the guy looks possessed half the time,” articulates one crowd member. Skipping any pretence of between-set banter, REVOCATION spend the time tuning instead. Existence may be futile, but this four-piece won’t let that stop them from playing to a binary level of perfection. Dave looks most alive when ripping through guitar solos in pockets of jazzy melancholic bliss, before employing one of the night’s most popular crowd engagement tactics: blackmail. “If you want to hear some new shit, show me that circle pit.” REVOCATION’s passion lies in their brutal precision, and the only beat they miss is one of crowd-inspiring chaos, but they are a sight to behold nonetheless.
Rating: 7/10
Breaking through the metallic atmosphere is Daryl Hall and John Oates’ You Make My Dreams, and it is this pop bop classic that sets the stage for band number four: THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER. This is a band that may create some of the gnarliest melodic death metal, but their devilish concoctions are underpinned with a tangible sense of enjoyment and humour – whether that’s telling “Marcel” off for playing his records through the house, or declaring that this crowd of metalheads are “the bees knees”. Founding guitarist and now singer Brian Eschbach looks like he’s escaped an asylum, and totters about the stage shrieking as he conducts the crowd with erratic arm movements. Ryan Knight weaves together punishing riffs and sweeping solos while the crowd obey Brian’s latest command, “decompress your entire spines whilst headbanging your asses off.” When Nocturnal turns the evil up, crowdsurfers surge forward in a wave of grins and sweaty limbs. THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER kill the crowd with sadistic joy and make anyone seeing them for the first time wonder why the hell it took them so long.
Rating: 8/10
The stage’s drum shop has finally been raided, now offering plenty of space for Germany’s metalcore veterans HEAVEN SHALL BURN to blast around it with their headline turned special guest performance. The tortured reindeer from Heimat‘s album cover decorates the back of the stage and is made all the more foreboding by a string arrangement intro; HEAVEN SHALL BURN are tonight’s messengers of darkness. Voice of the Voiceless summons a circle pit and the ear worm melodies encourage a sea of headbanging around the storm’s centre. Guitarist Maik Weichert takes a moment to remind London that Germans don’t have a sense of humour, so they won’t be winning over the crowd with any talking. Meanwhile, vocalist Marcus Bischoff is really enjoying sharing his water bottle with the crowd – opting for generosity as the better tactic to charm the crowd. The anthemic Black Tears whips the crowd into carnage mode, flying elbows and whipping heads stretching the pit’s diameter and engulfing as many bodies as possible. HEAVEN SHALL BURN are a heady torrent of riffs and bludgeoning beats, but they struggle to feel wholly epic in this space, despite the clear chunk of crowd oozing undying love for this band that has been going for more than three decades.
Rating: 7/10
As soon as the weird-ass version of Eye of the Tiger fades out, an onslaught of screams welcomes SYLOSIS to the stage. Voices go hoarse trying to keep up with Josh Middleton’s shouts of I Sever, and although tonight is the result of two tours forming a coalition, the O2 Forum Kentish Town is here to sweat, ache and scream for these heavy metal grafters. Poison For The Lost sees the ferocity reach a night high, while their new song Lacerations attempts to position itself as a go-to melodic singalong.
SYLOSIS are out for scene domination, and tonight’s crowd are out for blood. They crank through riffs that make you want to grab your neighbour and hurl them into an abyss. Josh actually admits that the love of his life, his wife, who the next song is dedicated to, has skipped their album launch party completely in favour of attending tonight’s DEFTONES concert. So maybe he wants to hurl her too.
All Glory, No Valour is one of the heaviest songs they’ve ever done, and features gravelly, belching vocals and thrashy, blast beat tornadoes, with Ali Richardson looking moronically happy behind his drum kit. Where the Sky Ends and Eclipsed break up the chugathon with their soaring guitar solos and ethereal instrumentals, a mild oasis in the mosh-storm that rages on until the not-at-all-bitter end.
Should this style of one-off tour merging become a more regular occurrence? Probably not. But was tonight drenched in mammoth riffs and suffocating heaviness? Absolutely.
Rating: 8/10
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