Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth review
| Band: | Sylosis |
| Album: | Edge Of The Earth |
| Style: | Melodic death metal, Progressive thrash metal |
| Release date: | March 2011 |
01. Procession
02. Sands Of Time
03. Empyreal (Part 1)
04. Empyreal (Part 2)
05. A Serpent's Tongue
06. Awakening
07. Kingdom Of Solitude
08. Where The Sky Ends
09. Dystopia
10. Apparitions
11. Altered States Of Consciousness
12. Beyond The Resurrected
13. Eclipsed
14. From The Edge Of The Earth
15. Earth's Dust [iTunes bonus]
It constantly amazes me that so many people in the metal community bash the genre of metalcore. It is understandable that certain groups can attain a bad image for the genre with more breakdowns than a vintage Chevy, vocals that could rival the majesty of a castrated cat and a general "what the fuck are they doing" sense of artistic direction leading many to stereotype metalcore as the black sheep of modern metal. But maybe, thanks to this very band, that might change for good.
Sylosis' Edge of the Earth combines the powerful embrace of melodic death metal, crunch of thrash metal and punk-laced breakdowns of metalcore into a great example of extreme metal few could resist to sink their claws into. The amount of great riffs leads you to lose count and the technical wizardry is the best you'll hear this side to a Jeff Loomis fan club. Drum and bass-playing is equally exceptional, adding a large layer of aggression from which this LP flows at a smooth rate. Vocals are very nice and natural; adding strain and requiring more effort to keep with the extremity, something preferable over guys who can strike a high-note but lean towards a more apathetic approach. Core screams aren't over-used as well.
These Brits thankfully have just as high-standard a song-writing ability as their instrumental playing. The three genres combine like the Tri-Force to tell us of more down-to-earth yet serious topics such as being stuck in apathy while engaging in redundant routines. Your typical virtuosic guitar playing can be heard throughout allowing for more melodic passages while the instrumental count is surprisingly low. It's the shifts between melodic and extreme metal that's impressive however: never feeling forced or added in for shits and giggles. Solos are not just mindless shredding and riffs range dramatically through the album. Production-wise it's pretty standard; nothing too fancy but the job is done.
A downside of this LP though is the run-time. It's 14 tracks and 72 minutes long and with genres like thrash it requires a few emergency supplies to be taken into account (water, food, accommodation etc.). That wouldn't matter too much if it could keep one interested but by the last few my enthusiasm was waning considerably. As individual songs though they're beyond good.
Fresh, original and bursting with youthful energy, Sylosis is one of a sizable amount of groups that shows the good points of metalcore while basing their sound off of more traditional genres. It's not perfect but nevertheless it was one of 2011's strongest LPs and for such a great year that's bound to be worth something.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written by TrollandDie | 14.01.2012
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Comments
Comments: 6
Visited by: 115 users
| The Galactician Posts: 379  |
Awesome review and +10 points for referencing the Tri-Force.  In a fabulous year of metal this record was my top. Agree too on the length being somewhat of a detriment; the last two songs are my favorites I don't know how many people will have the patience to get there.
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| snake? snaaaake! Account deleted |
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| TrollandDie Posts: 274  |
Written by The Galactician on 15.01.2012 at 00:47 Thanks man.  The last two are quite nicely done; the last one in particular lets off on a high note and adds somewhat of a closure to this work. Patience is a bit of an understatement: seventy minutes is ridiculous by any means! Although with this type of music it's not important to listen in a linear fashion anyway so I see no problems in that sense. It seems to be structured to listen to as a whole but the songs still work on a playlist. Good for cardio. 
---- Hello, my name is Mr......Snrub and I think it would be a capital idea to invest the money back in the nuclear plant.
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| TrollandDie Posts: 274 |
Written by Guest on 15.01.2012 at 01:43 Don't fret snake: we can always the spoil the folks here by giving them two.
---- Hello, my name is Mr......Snrub and I think it would be a capital idea to invest the money back in the nuclear plant.
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| musclassia Staff Posts: 7041  |
Nice review, although I feel maybe you're playing up the metalcore aspects a bit much, they've been getting progressively less metalcore since their first EPs and I don't really hear much -core on this except one or two breakdown-ish riffs maybe. This is easily my favourite 2011 release by quite a long margin, and one of my all-time favourite albums. Most of my favourite groups and albums are fairly established names but these guys just blow me away every time I see them, and the last CD I was addicted to before this one was their previous release. I understand people's complaints about the length, I guess the same kind-of sound might grate after a while, but for me every song either has awesome moments in it or is just plain awesome, so I'm more than happy to sit through 70+ minutes of it and still listen to the iTunes bonus track on the end. I'd struggle to come up with an unbiased review of the album, because even the songs that have moments that could bring them down (like the fairly lame clean section in Awakenings) have other moments that bring them back up (like the 'hurricane' riff, as I call it, in the same song), for me at least. I think what you say in your review: "It's the shifts between melodic and extreme metal that's impressive however: never feeling forced or added in for shits and giggles. Solos are not just mindless shredding and riffs range dramatically through the album." sums up at least some of the reasons why I like this music so much; aside from one or two slightly wank-y parts, all the solos and melodic sections feel like they add something without sounding at all out of place, with a natural progression in the songs.
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| Coconut Racecar Posts: 383  |
'It constantly amazes me that so many people in the metal community bash the genre of metalcore.' that first line is perfect. i'm extremely open minded to music and i've found plenty of talented metalcore groups, they're not ALL breakdowns and bullshit i'm glad some people who appreciate 'true' metal can see that. great review, good points and i'd have to agree an amazing release for '11. if anyone has overlooked 'Conclusion Of An Age' however you should look in to that, i find it to be an overall better album.
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