Sometimes you have to go back to basics. To remember why you do what you love in the first place.
Because sometimes Maximum Volume Music — which I started as a hobby in 2014, after blogging for four years about the gigs I’d been going to — can start to feel like a second job. So this year I’ve made a conscious decision to do more reviews and, crucially, to listen to more music.
Which is the whole point.
It’s why I fell in love with this stuff in the first damn place.
Josh Middleton probably gets that. In the press pack for this album, he puts it perfectly:
“I think back to being a teenager and the first band practice, when you crank amps up loud, and the feeling you get — that excitement and energy — and we’re trying to put that into the music.”
And that’s exactly where The New Flesh comes in.
“Beneath The Surface” is classy thrash of the highest order — the sort of thing that could probably engender a mosh pit in a morgue. “There’s nothing here for us,” Middleton spits, before concluding, “you have turned us anti-human.” It’s brutal, bleak, and brilliantly direct.
“Erased” might be as heavy as Sylosis have ever been, but somehow it’s also more accessible. There’s a genuinely melodic chorus here — not something you always expect in music this ferocious — and it lands hard without blunting the edge.
“All Glory No Valour” is epic and grandiose… right up until it explodes.
“Lacerations” feels immediately more menacing, carrying a modern Machine Head-style weight, while a flash of growl will definitely catch the ear of Swallow The Sun fans. It also underlines something important: Middleton has clearly spent serious time thinking about the lyrics this time around. There’s a barely concealed rage running through tracks like “Mirror Mirror”.
That said, his guitar work remains utterly top-drawer, and “Spared From The Guillotine” is a reminder of just how devastatingly precise he can be.
“Adorn My Throne” might be the prime example of how good this record is — moving from disembodied industrial unease to a full-throated roar in just four and a half minutes.
The fast and furious title track is a straight punch in the eye for anyone who thinks bands have to mellow with age. The way it shifts gears, piling on huge slabs of riffing, is an absolute joy.
Then comes the curveball. The acoustics of “Everywhere At Once” aren’t just a gear change — it’s a letter from a father to the children he leaves behind when he goes out on tour, handled with real tenderness and emotional weight.
That calm is shattered by arguably the fastest thing here, “Circle Of Swords”, before “Seeds In The River” draws the curtain with the stark thought:
“we’re all seeds in the river, washed away like we were never there.”
Except some people do leave a mark. Because, as the album itself reminds us, “resilience is a weapon”.
And Sylosis have shown plenty of that. The first time I saw them was back in autumn 2011, and even then you could tip them for greatness. These days they’re almost part of the old guard — but with experience comes wisdom, and when you marry that to the ability they’ve always had, the result is something special.
The New Flesh doesn’t just reconnect Sylosis with their roots — it refines, sharpens, and weaponises them.
Arguably, this is their best album yet.
Rating: 9.5/10
