Very good, my expectations are incredibly high for this.

Pretty cool that they included the Smashing Pumpkins cover here. Now I don't have to download it (that is, if it doesn't end up being a bonus track, but it seems not)

I want this to album right now

Oh wow, today just became awesome. I can deal with 3 months till the next one - and I like the title!

New song:

Damn I can't wait to hear this album! Mercy and Leech are amazing!

Less than a week away!

Leaked today for those who can't wait until Monday n'such...

Love the album, have played it constantly since it leaked! going directly to the store to pick up my copy as soon as its released!

Definitely better than Monolith. It's cool, it has that brooding, darker undertone to it but still nowhere near Edge of the Earth material.

:/ I don't get the high ratings already. Granted I was never that into them but I could see the appeal of some of the other albums, but this seems to take the blandest elements of metalcore and melodeath and put them together in an album that's far too long for its own good. Vocals are too forward in the mix (and really not great vocals in the first place imo), uninspired flat rhythms, hokey melodies, stunted and unenthusiastic faster pacing... yeah, I'm not feeling it at all, and to be honest it doesn't seem like the band are either.

Listened to the album a couple of times and also to their older stuff and I really fail to see where the progressive thrash metal comes into the equation.

They make overlong albums = progressive, probably =P At least they managed to keep this one under an hour.

While I love this band I agree about them not being progressive. At all.

Written by Guest on 12.01.2015 at 18:19

:/ I don't get the high ratings already. Granted I was never that into them but I could see the appeal of some of the other albums, but this seems to take the blandest elements of metalcore and melodeath and put them together in an album that's far too long for its own good. Vocals are too forward in the mix (and really not great vocals in the first place imo), uninspired flat rhythms, hokey melodies, stunted and unenthusiastic faster pacing... yeah, I'm not feeling it at all, and to be honest it doesn't seem like the band are either.

I'm not going to start a debate with you over the music, because we clearly have very different opinions over the album and band's musical style in general that a big internet back-and-forth is unlikely to reconcile, but the album length complaint you make is something I'd like to contest. I guess when you're looking to just sit down and listen to an album front-to-back (something I find myself doing increasingly less outside of checking out a new album for the first time) an excessively long album can be jading, especially if you don't dig the music. But particularly for those who enjoy a band's sound (who I assume are the target audience for an album), up to a certain point, and the 60 minutes here doesn't seem like it reaches that point, surely providing more music per release is a good thing? Given that there's anything between 1.5-3 years between the releases of most bands, providing more material per release gives more songs to explore and enjoy whilst waiting for the next release. In the same way that a single is designed to leave the listener salivating for more once they've listened to it a few times, a shorter album is more at risk of the listener getting used to and even bored of the same music after a while and longing for a new release, which is fine for the bands which pop out something new every six months but for the less regular bands can be more of an issue.

Admittedly this might seem slightly hypocritical of me considering I moaned about length on my Machine Head review but that was more because of the amount of crap on that album, and I didn't mind the length at all on their (in my opinion obviously) good albums. As long as the music is consistently good (which of course is subjective to a degree), varied enough to not become monotonous and sound like the band's out of ideas (admittedly might be your point of contention here but I'd argue the point), and feels like it belongs within the same package, I'd consider it to be more of a good thing than anything - I mean it's not like a movie where you have to get through the whole thing from start to end to follow the story or anything, as long as the songs stand alone as single entities you can pop in and out as you please, or listen to it all together, depending on how you feel. It's reasons like that which make me willing to get bonus track editions of albums from bands I really like, and which stops the CD-testing length of something like Tool's Lateralus not daunting.

Sorry, I ended up rambling on a long time (unfortunately a habit of mine) but I hope you see my point at least.

Written by musclassia on 12.01.2015 at 19:58


Sorry, I ended up rambling on a long time (unfortunately a habit of mine) but I hope you see my point at least.

I see your point completely. Basically whether or not an album is too long is really incumbent on whether or not you enjoy it to begin with, which is true. You can't have too much of a good thing afterall. I recall my main complaint about Monolith was that it was too long, so I must have enjoyed it, just not enough to justify to 70 minute playtime. I confess even if this record was half the length I'm not sure I would have liked it any better. It just never engaged me.

I thought Monolith's length was almost right, and I'm usually the one complaining about albums being too long (with a few exceptions.) However, I'd have preferred if they had just cut out the 10-minute silence and added that hidden song as a separate track. Also, they should have never written "Paradox", which was the only song on there that I didn't like. Then the album would have been around 55 minutes, which would be ideal for me. Although I usually prefer thrash albums to be in the 35-45 minute range, but Sylosis is varied enough to have that extra 10.

About this album though... I don't know. I rated it highly at first because I had assumed it would grow on me like the first single, but I just can't get over how bland some of these songs are. The majority is still great, but I could have done without "Leech," "Servitude," "Indoctrinated," and "Callous Souls."

Written by Zap on 12.01.2015 at 20:33

I thought Monolith's length was almost right, and I'm usually the one complaining about albums being too long (with a few exceptions.) However, I'd have preferred if they had just cut out the 10-minute silence and added that hidden song as a separate track. Also, they should have never written "Paradox", which was the only song on there that I didn't like. Then the album would have been around 55 minutes, which would be ideal for me. Although I usually prefer thrash albums to be in the 35-45 minute range, but Sylosis is varied enough to have that extra 10.

About this album though... I don't know. I rated it highly at first because I had assumed it would grow on me like the first single, but I just can't get over how bland some of these songs are. The majority is still great, but I could have done without "Leech," "Servitude," "Indoctrinated," and "Callous Souls."

You didn't like Paradox? The more I listen to the album the more it becomes my favourite song, although the run from What Dwells Within to The River is pretty unbeatable. Personally, apart from the stupid 10 minute silence idea (I don't mind it so much if the bonus track sucks cos I can just skip at the end of the main song, but I liked the bonus so had to go to the effort of creating two tracks in order to lose the silence, just inconvenient) the main 'dead weight' on Monolith for me were Fear The World and the title track. But when they want to be, they can make songs varied and engaging enough that even after the 72 minutes culminating in the end of Edge of the Earth's title track, I have the engagement to go straight into the bonus track, Earth's Dust.

This one will clearly need more listening for me, but whilst it didn't have the variety of Monolith (didn't hear any post- or black fluorishes on any of the songs this time round), I found it very enjoyable throughout, and really like the high clean vocals on To Build A Tomb and Overthrown. Leech is the obvious weak point, I like it well enough but it's miles away from their usual standard. Indoctrinated I dug a lot, but Servitude and Callous Souls also seemed slightly less compelling than the others. Again though I still need more listens.

And yeah Jooe I agree ultimately it comes down to personal enjoyment in what's going on during the run time. I must admit for most modern thrash bands I doubt I could stomach much more over 35-40 minutes, but that's because almost every one I come across is derivative, dry and one-note. Sylosis simply have enough melody, variety, individuality and spirit that they take me from that general disinterest to wild enthusiasm whilst still mostly occupying the same genre.

Written by musclassia on 12.01.2015 at 21:26

You didn't like Paradox? The more I listen to the album the more it becomes my favourite song, although the run from What Dwells Within to The River is pretty unbeatable.
the main 'dead weight' on Monolith for me were Fear The World and the title track.

That's funny, Monolith was probably my favorite track off of that album . And I never had a problem with Fear The World either. Paradox though, yes I dislike it. Not only do I think it's nothing special; I also would have loved it if the album went from the slow and heavy title track straight into the thrashing fury of A Dying Vine.

Bad vocals, decent material

The vocalist is weak...

Written by Guest on 12.01.2015 at 20:19

Written by musclassia on 12.01.2015 at 19:58


Sorry, I ended up rambling on a long time (unfortunately a habit of mine) but I hope you see my point at least.

I see your point completely. Basically whether or not an album is too long is really incumbent on whether or not you enjoy it to begin with, which is true. You can't have too much of a good thing afterall. I recall my main complaint about Monolith was that it was too long, so I must have enjoyed it, just not enough to justify to 70 minute playtime. I confess even if this record was half the length I'm not sure I would have liked it any better. It just never engaged me.

Monolith wasn't as long though, since about 10 minutes of it was silence at the end of the last track.

Otherwise, I would not call this band progressive at all (doesn't change the fact that this is one of my favourite bands, I don't think progressive = better), but I guess it comes from the fact that they use lots of atmospheric elements, which is unusual for this style (though I recall God Forbid doing it a few times). Doesn't make it progressive, but it is a relatively unusual element in this genre.

I'm loving this album. Definitely their best IMO. I actually like Josh's vocals especially his high screams.

Written by deadone on 14.01.2015 at 05:30

I'm struggling to hear thrash either let alone anything remotely progressive.

As J.O.O.E. says it melodic death and metalcore.

Huh? Big thrash vibe here (and yeah, not progressive). Can't hear almost anything hardcore about this.

Written by deadone on 14.01.2015 at 06:03


My thoughts too. Kind of disappointing as I'd heard many great things about this band and they aren't really living up to the hype.

Still might be worth checking earlier releases though. I swear they sounded better, though I might be remembering wrong. Most other people seem to think so.

Written by Guest on 14.01.2015 at 14:16

Written by deadone on 14.01.2015 at 06:03


My thoughts too. Kind of disappointing as I'd heard many great things about this band and they aren't really living up to the hype.

Still might be worth checking earlier release though. I swear they sounded better, though I might be remembering wrong. Most other people seem to think so.

Haha, that's one of the reasons I checked it out, because I had heard so much about them. But I was disappointed. I found it quite boring, but as you say, maybe the older albums are worth checking out.

I love their artwork though

Written by Spirit Molecule on 14.01.2015 at 14:26

Haha, that's one of the reasons I checked it out, because I had heard so much about them. But I was disappointed. I found it quite boring, but as you say, maybe the older albums are worth checking out.

I love their artwork though

Yeah they definitely nail badass artwork. They have that going for them at least 8]

Amazing album to open the year with. The blend of thrash and melodic death is just so seamless unlike the last Carcass LP. My favourite so far is Leeches but probably because it's stuck in my head. I need to give the LP a few more spins though.
They have just the right ambience and clean vocals. If that does not work for you, don't bother. Complaints about not being Prog enough? The songs average over a 4 minutes where all this whining is concerned. What about not being Djenty enough? No takers?

Written by AssailantForce on 15.01.2015 at 14:55

Complaints about not being Prog enough?

No one is complaining about it not "being prog enough," some people just don't agree with the "progressive thrash" tag it has here.

I see this as a big step up from "Monolith" which I ended up being a little disappointed with. The songs were drawn out and pretty formulaic. Here they change up speeds with an abundance of different riffs. I don't understand how you can't hear the thrash and I don't really hear much metalcore maybe Josh's vocal style which I believe is the only thing that may turn some people off. Really I think this is they're best album with plenty of standout tracks,going to be enjoying this one for awhile!

More oversaturated pseudo-metalcore masquerading as melodic death metal. Just put my review in the archives. I don't hate these guys, I just don't see anything of worth here. Nothing new with the riffs nor are they played in any amazing fashion. Too long to the point that listens to review were an arduous affair. Vocals are monotonous and lifeless. I give them a few more points back for that given this is Josh's first time taking on vocals in addition to guitar. Overall, wholly uninteresting. The best part is the artwork and the video. Is that last track trying to be epic?

EDIT: I have been informed that this was not his first time on vocals.