This is the seventh album from UK metal band Sylosis.
Following on from 2023’s extremely strong A Sign of Things to Come, The New Flesh contains 50 minutes of new material from Sylosis. It’s heavy, riffy, and good fun all-round.
Through a personable brand of metalcore, thrash, and melodic death metal, Sylosis do what they do best across this new collection of tracks. Meaty riffs, catchy choruses, engaging melodies; Sylosis can do this in their sleep, but retain a passion for their material that shines through its professional presentation. Sylosis clearly believe in what they’re doing, and this comes through in the songwriting and performances, imbuing The New Flesh with a power and enjoyment factor that’s absent from many bands of Sylosis’ level.
All of which is ultimately to say – The New Flesh is a very good metal album. Sylosis know how to pen a decent metal tune. Unusually for a bigger band Sylosis are nicely heavy and the guitars are right in your face. The songwriting backs up their tasty crunch; the tracks are more than just a string of different riffs tied together. Sylosis deal in songs, and The New Flesh is infectious, satisfying, and has a lot of replay value because of it.
The riffs, the drums, the vocals, the production, it all comes together very well. Stylistically, The New Flesh continues on from where the previous album left off, while adopting more thrashier elements. It’s an overly simple description, but gets the general idea across. Smash together elements of bands like Machine Head, Pantera, Sepultura, Testament, and Trivium, and you’ll have an idea of what sort of ground The New Flesh covers. It hits the spot. This is a record that’s just effortlessly likeable. It takes from the past to fuel its own present, but does so with a personality of its own that comes through well, despite its obvious influences.
The New Flesh is a thoroughly enjoyable slab of 90s/00s-influenced metal. It’s got the songs, it’s got the character it’s got the sound. Sylosis remain the best in the business for this sort of accessible heaviness.
Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 