“Here’s your parting gift.”
By and large, the days of melodic metalcore are, unfortunately, a thing of the past; gone are the days of hearing albums like Trivium‘s landmark metalcore classic, Ascendancy, ruling the airwaves of the average metalcore listener’s daily music intake with its fascinating blend of technical thrash riffs and the bludgeoning heaviness that early metalcore was known for. Instead, the modern metalcore listen is mostly an experience filled with what is ultimately alt-metal with a few more breakdowns than usual. While this has become an unfortunate trend, it is a relief that bands like Sylosis in the modern scene show that there’s still a lot to be heard from melodic metalcore. Whether it’s the more focused sonic assault of their 2023 album A Sign of Things to Come or the thrash-laden madness of 2015’s Dormant Heart, Sylosis have shown that they are a force to be reckoned with. Now, the band returns with their new album, The New Flesh, to see if they have managed to sustain that momentum.
As a record, The New Flesh shines a spotlight on how heavy their brand of thrashy melodic metalcore can truly be. Rather than interspersing soaring melody and riffy metalcore mayhem in equal measure, The New Flesh instead focuses on writing songs with more plentiful thrash and crunchy riffs.
Throughout The New Flesh, there are numerous instances of Sylosis’ focus on crafting an engaging record through thrash elements. However, one of the biggest examples of this focus is contained within the track “All Glory, No Valour”. Starting at a slow, churning pace, the song soon switches into a more accelerated tempo, giving a strong sense of scope alongside a crunchy breakdown at the halfway mark. This payoff is largely due to the rapid change in pace. By doing this, “All Glory, No Valour” allows the thrashy riffs to shine in a way that few Sylosis riffs have on past releases. Even songs such as “Mirror Mirror” focus on the band’s more groove-oriented side and are enhanced greatly by the general thrashy heaviness, giving a more punchy, almost primal beat.
Riff-fueled chaos is no doubt the main emphasis of The New Flesh, and Sylosis has expanded the album’s melodies as well. The biggest example of this is on “Everywhere at Once”, which slows things down through a subdued pace filled with acoustic riffs and crooning vocals, switching places with speedier, classic thrash riffs fairly intermittently in a quite emotional way that few, if any, songs in the band’s discography have felt previously. The album’s expanded capabilities pertaining to melody are how the more anthemic riffs during the chorus of the closing track “Seeds in the River” put melody front and center, adding yet another noteworthy closer to the band’s repertoire.
While a focus on heaviness from the band is a refreshing change of pace, it’s also apparent that there’s a limit to the extent to which thrashy metalcore can be executed without sounding monotonous at times. No track on the album feels boring, but it would have served the songs better if they had a few more melodic death metal or metalcore riffs thrown into the mix to be more distinguishable from one another.
Overall, The New Flesh is yet another strong addition to Sylosis’ already incredibly stellar discography, showing that a band this far into their career doesn’t need to necessarily add too many new elements to their sound to keep their listeners engaged. They need only to change up their formula now and again.
8/10
The New Flesh is out this Friday, February 20, via Nuclear Blast Records, and you can pre-order it here.