Top Pick
Sylosis – A Sign Of Things To Come (groove thrash)
If you're still wondering where all the passion and energy that was notably lacking from the last Architects album went, then look no further. The nagging (and rather unfair) feeling that that band should have sounded a lot more like Syslosis after Josh Middleton joined their ranks has been settled and satiated, with the man himself stepping aside to focus on Sylosis full-time and delivering albums like A Sign of Things to Come.
As with 2020's Cycle of Suffering, A Sign of Things to Come largely does away with the dazzling technicality and progressive tendencies that bolstered their earlier output, to instead focus on simply bringing the thunder on track after track after track. Both are albums defined by their colossal collection of crushing riffs. Yet whereas Cycle of Suffering boasted a darker and more brooding atmosphere, A Sign of Things to Come is all about going for the jugular. Opener "Deadwood" is as definitive a statement as any band of their ilk could wish to offer, and what follows isn't far behind, often bringing to mind and even rivaling the likes of early Machine Head and Sepultura at their peak.
A Sign of Things to Come does drop off a bit toward the end, once Middleton and the rest of Sylosis start to dabble in more melancholic tonalities, with Middleton sure sounding a lot like Robb Flynn on clean-sung quasi-ballad "Absent". "Judas" still owns though and closing track "A Godless Throne" nails the landing by being one of the band's best and most ambitious compositions to date, and "Deadwood" alone is enough to garner it this week's top spot. The whole album is available to listen to and purchase via bandcamp, but this is another one where I think the video really sells it. A little bit of fire can go a long way, but an excessive amount is always sure to seal the deal.
Release Roundup
Acranius – Amoral (deathcore)
Angel Du$t – Brand New Soul (hardcore punk)
Antipod – Eveil (prog metal)
Art Of Shock – Shine Black Light Out (thrash)
Bio-Cancer – Revengeance (death thrash)
Black Pestilence – Chaotic Wisdom (black thrash)
The Chemical Brothers – For That Beautiful Feeling (big beat, dance)
CLT DRP – Nothing Clever, Just Feelings (alt rock, synth punk)
Conquer Divide – Slow Burn (melodic metalcore, alt metal)
Core Of iO – Part I: iO (prog metal)
Cryptopsy – As Gomorrah Burns (brutal tech death)
Damnation Plan – The New Horizon (prog metal)
Dantalion – Fatum (black metal)
Dark Reflection – Everlasting Night (melodeath)
Demons My Friends – Demons Seem To Gather (stoner doom)
Deth Kaktus – Prick (melodeath)
Domkraft – Sonic Moons (stoner doom sludge)
Dying Fetus – Make Them Beg For Death (brutal death metal, deathgrind)
Egokills – Egokills (Andrew W. K. if he was from Finnland and also Kid Rock)
Electric Six – Turquoise (alt rock, indie rock)
Ethereal Tomb – When The Rivers Dry (sludge core)
Evilon – A Warriors Way (folky melodeath)
Excarnated Entity – Mass Grave Horizon (blackened death metal)
Finsterforst – Jenseits (blackened melofolk)
Fire Down Below – Low Desert Surf Club (stoner metal)
Fixation – More Subtle Than Death (post hardcore, alt rock)
The Flower Kings – Look At You Now (prog rock, dad prog)
Fossilization – Leprous Daylight (death metal)
FOTOCRIME – Accelerated (post-punk, darkwave)
Gory Blister – Reborn From Hatred (melodeath)
Greed Culture – The Death Of Us (hardcore)
Gross Reality – Return To Ruin (heavy melodeath?)
Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate – The Light Of Ancient Mistakes (chill prog, elctro prog)
Head Cleaner – The Extreme Sound Of Truth (grindcore)
Hiems – Stranger in a Wasteland (black metal)
Hunter – Rebel Angels Rise (thrash)
Ice Giant – Ghost Of Humanity (symphonic prog metal)
Ironflame – Compendium (power metal)
Irreversible Entanglements – Protect Your Light (avant-garde jazz, jazz poetry)
Jute Gyte – Unus Mundus Patet (avant-garde black metal)
Kvelertak – Endling (stoner sludge, dad rock)
Marnero – Odradek Parte I (post-hardcore, post-rock)
Medicine Horse – Medicine Horse (crossover doom?)
The Mercury Tree – Self Similar (weird prog)
Monolord – It's All the Same (sludgy psychedelic prog doom)
Morta – La Espana Negra (blackened death metal)
Mustang – Beyond Raging Thunder (heavy metal, speed metal)
Nasty – Heartbreak Criminals (hardcore, metalcore)
Oomph! – Richter Und Henker (power metal?)
Pain Of Truth – Not Through Blood (hardcore)
Pixie Ninja – Hypnagogia (black metal)
Pomegranate Tiger – All Input Is Error (prog metal)
Puddle Of Mudd – Ubiquitous (post grunge, butt rock)
Saliva – Revelation (nu alt metal)
Satsuriku Robot – No Thrash Metal, No Life! (thrash)
Shunyata – The Dark Age (black metal)
Sielunvihollinen – Helvetinkone (black metal)
Skull & Crossbones – Sungazer (melodic rock, power metal)
Sleep Maps – Reclaim Chaos (death metal, post rock)
Slomatics – Strontium Fields (doom metal, space rock)
Sodomisery – Mazzaroth (blackened melodeath)
Southern Empire – Another World (prog rock)
Spawn Of Evil – Sadistic Missionaries (death metal)
Spillage – Phase Four (hardish rock)
Spyder Byte – The Taste Of Filth (hard rock)
Terminalist – The Crisis As Condition (death thrash)
Tired Minds – The Body Is A Burden (hardcore, mathcore)
Triskelyon – Artificial Insanity (thrash)
UnityTX – Ferality (nu metal, rap-core)