WHAT MADNESS ARE SYLOSIS UP TO?

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Apr 062012
 

(I am so fucking slow on the uptake sometimes. DemiGodRaven sent me the post below, and despite the fact that it belonged in the “breaking news” category, I had a brain fart and didn’t pounce on it. So, the news is now less breaking than it was, but still worth writing about.)

Just recently (as in, March 31st — I’m working midnight’s, so I’m falling behind the times rapidly), Sylosis uploaded a video to their Youtube account called “Sylosis – III”. There’s no description as to what it is, but it consists of a bunch of footage of the band in the studio.

They seem to have been spending time there lately. They found enough time to record a new song for the people who donated to their pledge drive to help them out in the US last year, and that one has finally begun making its way around the net.

As for III, does this mean we’re going to see some new Sylosis material already? I know there was a pretty sizable gap between Conclusion of an Age and Edge Of The Earth, but the band put so much goddamn material on Edge Of The Earth that it practically seemed like too much at times. Especially when you add in the newer song, there has been quite a lot of Sylosis in the past year. I personally, cannot get enough of it, as I love this band and think they should definitely be talked about more. Continue reading »

THEMADISRAELI’S TOP 15: SYLOSIS-“EDGE OF THE EARTH”

 Album Reviews, Listmania  10 Responses »
Dec 162011
 

(NCS writer TheMadIsraeli is taking a different tack with his list of the year’s best albums — either reviewing or re-assessing each of them, one by one. Here’s the first.)

I have been truly dreading reviewing this album for the simple reason that I may fail to describe adequately what this album means to me in the modern metal landscape. I never got to review this album during my tenure at The Metal Register before we shut down, but I was supposed to.  I’m glad it didn’t go down that way now, because I’ve been able to sit on this album and really take it in.  It’s been in constant rotation all year, regardless of what else beckoned my listening habits.

I remember when self-anointed critics were unreasonably hammering these guys, after three EP’s and a debut full length, for being a Trivium knockoff, simply because they were busy taking Trivium’s thrash/metalcore hybrid sound to the next level.  Sylosis has come a very long way since then, along with numerous lineup changes, with only mastermind and guitarist (now also vocalist) Josh Middleton remaining.  The lineup established on Conclusion of an Age marked Sylosis finally establishing their identity, finally cementing what it was they wanted to do.  The Conclusion of an Age lineup is still here, minus vocalist Jamie Graham, in their triumphant, flawless victory known as Edge Of The Earth.

Sylosis are THE modern metal band, combining old-school thrash metal aesthetics, metalcore energy and dynamics, and powerful and majestic melodeath melodies.  THEY ARE the ultimate example of the future in metal that lies in the hybridization of sub-genres.  They manage to take the best of these three schools of thought while throwing out the superfluous, unneeded bullshit, and manage to form a cohesive sound that never fails to hit on target. Continue reading »

SYLOSIS: “A SERPENT’S TONGUE”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Dec 032011
 

I’m awake now, but still want to keep my “fuck yeah” face on.

I may write something later.  Or not.

This just up-loaded video sounds like the album track synced with video of the band’s last hometown performance in Reading, England, before embarking on their current US tour.

THE TWO BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR SO FAR: SYLOSIS AND XERATH

 Album Reviews  37 Responses »
May 192011
 

(NCS contributor Israel Flanders steps up with his nominations for the year’s two best albums of the year to date. Agree or disagree in the Comments, won’t you?)

Let’s just address something here . . . A ton of kick-ass new music has been unveiled in the year thus far, but some of the new releases have obviously been better than others.  While my choices are controversial, I’m going to talk about, IMO, the two most essential albums of 2011 to date:  Sylosis‘s Edge Of The Earth and Xerath‘s II.

I know, you’re asking me, “No TesseracT!?  No Devin Townsend!?”  Believe it or not (given my tastes), I liked Deconstruction, but it just felt like Devin repeating himself and starting on the path to self-parody, and I love One, but it was too little too late, on top of suffering from a syndrome of repetitiveness.  With that said, let’s dig into these two albums shall we?  I’m not going to go into real depth here; instead, I’m gonna let the songs I’m providing speak for themselves.  I will give a brief overview of what you are getting yourself into, though, so let’s get started.

SYLOSIS: EDGE OF THE EARTH

This is the best melodic metal you’re going to hear all year.  Sylosis has been well on the way to taking their place amongst the metal greats, but this album surely will seal the deal. What we have here is a combination of old school metalcore, early Metallica, and Forbidden that provides a stunningly vicious, thrashing melodic assault.  This band doesn’t play around one bit, wasting no time in laying down the punishment with a plethora (and I do mean a HUGE ASS plethora) of riffs — every single one of them memorable, every single one of them hitting hard with technicality and tasteful execution. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

MORE 2011 SICKNESS (PART 3)

 Forthcoming Albums  14 Responses »
Feb 272011
 


We’re jumping the gun on this post, since the month doesn’t end until tomorrow. Why? Uh, because this post is ready to go and we don’t have anything else finished for today yet. Work and other shit interfered with our grand plans for a Sunday post.  We might still get another one up later today, but for now, feast your eyes on the barrage of metal headed our direction.

What we do with these installments of METAL IN THE FORGE is collect news blurbs and press releases we’ve seen over the last 30 days (or in this case, the last 27 days) about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like (including updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know them yet. And in this post, we cut and paste the announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

This isn’t a cumulative list, so be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming New Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported in previous installments. This month’s list begins right after the jump. Look for your favorite bands, or get intrigued about some new ones. There’s some awesome shit on the way. Continue reading »

MORE 2011 SICKNESS (PART 2)

 Forthcoming Albums  No Responses »
Feb 012011
 


The first month of the year has come and gone. January brought those of us in Seattle some typically ass-sucking winter weather, though it wasn’t nearly as bad as the brutality dished out by the weather gods on our metal brothers and sisters in the Midwest and Northeast of the U.S. And of course, our readers ins places like Russia, and Finland, and Sweden are probably laughing their asses off reading our complaints about our winter weather. So, we’ll just shut up about that.

Besides, January brought all sorts of great new metal to our tender ears, so who gives a shit about the weather anyway? And you know what else January brought? It brought news of still more metal goodness on the way — great bursts of audio sunshine in our collective futures that will part these winter clouds and leave them whimpering in cloudy tatters.

Okay, maybe we should leave poetry to the poets and just get on with this next monthly installment of METAL IN THE FORGE, where we collect news blurbs and press releases we’ve seen over the last 30 days about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like, or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know them yet. And in this post, we’ve cut and pasted the announcements and compiled them in alphabetical order. Look for your favorite bands, or get intrigued about some new ones:

AJATARRA: “AJATTARA — the Finnish band featuring former AMORPHIS frontman Pasi Koskinen (a.k.a. Itse Ruoja Suruntuoj) — will release its seventh album, Murhat (“Murders”) on February 2 via Osasto-A Records. Murhat is available for streaming in its entirety on the AJATTARA Facebook page.”  (much more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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