Date: 2020
Total Time: 50:53
Label: Nuclear Blast

The British band from Reading returns after 5 years with their 5th Full-Length work. During those years, the guitarist Josh Middleton has toured and joined ARCHITECTS, but that hasn’t stopped him from working  again with his old band, returning with an explosive album.

   Here (thankfully?) the Metalcore elements are scarce (although we can find some). And I say that because Josh could had been quite influenced by ARCHITECTS. With a new drummer and a new bass player, SYLOSIS releases an album full of energy and that is exactly what we expected. Their sound had begun to change since “Edge Of The Earth”, escaping the strict mold of Thrash sound. With their music basically being Modern Extreme Metal, but at the same time still visibly adjacent to the Thrash sound, “Cycle Of Suffering” will make you want to constantly headbang . The speed is usually very fast, the riffs are relentless and clever, but sometimes a little more melodic. Having the necessary melody in their music, mainly in some choruses, but also in some solos, and the groovy points also standing out, this is definitely their most diverse album. One such example is the track “Invidia” (which is the best track in my opinion), which starts quickly and dynamically, to become even faster with an ultra fast riff, followed by a melodic chorus, a mid tempo groove point only to gradually slow down and become very melodic in the end. “I Server”, contains the best chorus for sure, but it is also a great single. Production is a major benefit too, as it is a very clear one.

   It is one of SYLOSIS’ heaviest creations. An album that can definitely make you lose yourself into it, as it contains so many different genres, thus you can never get bored. Modern Extreme Metal has been in the path where many bands’ sounds are intertwined, intermingling many genres into the most extreme sound. A difficult task, but it is being successfully delivered here.

   “Cycle Of Suffering” IS SYLOSIS and it’s not something else, a mutated experiment that some feared. It is also a melting pot, which takes the best elements from several Metal genres and mixes them under the modern Thrash Metal umbrella. It’s also something you have to listen to, in order to understand how Modern Extreme Metal is played (and should be played) nowadays! 

Rating: 7.5/10
Editor: George Kourou
Related Link: Sylosis – Official Page