Release Roundup: 2/20/26

Top Pick

Sylosis – The New Flesh (increasingly melodic groove-thrash)

I have long held that Sylosis can do no wrong, and for so long they have proved my beliefs well-founded. Although the more technical and progressive elements that defined their earlier sound have all but dissipated in the band's modern era, they've also proven themselves just as, if not more, lethal as a more straight forward groove thrash band, whose monstrous riffitude lays waste to all in their path and whose concerts you definitely do not want to find yourself at when the wind changes. The lead up to the release of their seventh album, The New New Flesh, is the first time that faith has been slightly shaken. The album's underwhelming and seemingly unsuitable cover art, coupled with its AI-invoking imagery and album title were the first things that had me worried.* Then there was the series of singles that failed to excite me the way their promotional offerings had in the past, and which hinted at increasingly molodic components to their sound, including the addition of some fairly offputting clean vocals. Thankfully, my concerns were unfounded and my resolve remains steadfast.

There are two obvious influences—or at least invocations—for mainman Josh Middleton's vocal approach on this record, one is Machine Head's Robb Flynn, the other is All That Remains frontman/general douchebag Philip Labonte. The former is more expected and, even if Flynn's vocals aren't in the best place at the moment, his approach is easily applicable, as is his hoarser thraot-shredding style when Middleton screams "I'll spit you out of the mouth of hell!" on opener "Beneath the Surface", or “I want your fucking head!” on "Adorn my Throne", which starts with some very Flynn-sounding clean singing and ends with a deliciously Demanufacture-eque Fear Factory rhythm riff. The latter touchstone, while not entirely outside the realm of expectation, is rather more alarming. Even if Labonte's melodic metalcore yarl isn't beyond the scope of Sylosis's sound, I won't pretend I wasn't extremely concerned and slightly put off by the overly processed/awkwardly harmonised melodic chorus of second single "Erased"—which was even enough to overshadow the big breakdown riff at its end. Thankfully (albeit somewhat bafflingly) these awkward melodic vocals are a one-off on the album, with "Erased" also constituting one of its weaker—if not weakest—offerings.

Any concerns I had were immediately quelled when the album started with an almost Bloodbath-esque, buzzsaw death metal riff, before the band settled into the more familiar and satisfying thrash groove of "Beneath the Surface". Indeed, the consistent quality and energy displayed throughout The New Flesh raise the question of why "Erased" was even considered as a single, beyond its ill-fitting radio-metal-aping chorus, when tracks like "All Glory, No Valour" are sitting right there! The song sounds like a mix between Revocation and early Lamb of God and—even amid an album absolutely full of them—delivers not one, but two all time mosh calls amid its rabid death-thrash assault; first with its refrain of “All glory, no valour, everything you wish for fucking shatters!” and later “You beg for a seat at the table of kings!” (which fools only wish for, of course) before dropping into an absolutely colossal groove riff, even by Sylosis-ian standards.

"Mirror Mirror" is another standout track, that adds to the mosh call roster with its threatening command to "Remove your fucking skin!", while later single "Lacerations" manages to add in some clean singing in a much more effective and natural-sounding manner. "Spared from the Guillotine" is a later highlight, which brings to mind the hardcore-influenced grooves of Machine Head's The More Things Change (1997), even if it commits the somewhat unforgivable (and rather Burning Red-esque) sin of rhyming "pyre" with "fire". A hefty hardcore influence is also to be found on lead single and title-track "The New Flesh", both in the hardcore break it drops into at the end, and its opening, Black Breath-sounding shout of "Sentenced!", (and was oddly released on the same day that band's unexpected reunion was announced...). The New Flesh might mark a distinctly melodic deviation in Sylosis's discography, but, taken on aggregate, it's also arguably one of their most destructive.

...It also contains a butt-rock ballad. I'm kind of burying the lede here, but I'm also kind of not. Sure, "Everywhere at Once" sounds a bit like Staind singing Hootie and the Blowfish and a lot like Mark Tremonti solo venture, but it's also not that bad, or even particularly remarkable beyond being unexpected. It also contains some of the best butt-rock soloing you'll find this side of Alter Bridge with the added benefit of not having to put up with Miles Kennedy’s incessant warbling, so that's a plus. The song itself might not be great, but Middleton's voice sounds pretty decent, and infinitely more comfortable in its lower register. If the band were to go further down the clean-singing route, then this might prove a a more fruitful direction to develop toward, á la some of the more recent Whitechapel records. The main problem is its awkward placement in the anti-penultimate position, before the furious "Cycle of Swords" and the unexpectedly symphonic and unfortunately Labonte-leaning "Seeds in the River" round out the record, and perhaps would have been better included at the end of the record, if at all.

After all that, I find myself in a similar position regarding The New Flesh as I did its predecessor A Sign of Things to Come (2023), which is that while Sylosis's newest offering might be their weakest offering on paper, you wouldn't know that from listening to it. All hail.

*I don’t think the cover is AI, just that it unfortunately invokes that style now—especially in conjunction with its (absent) title.

Phasma – Purgatory (sludgy/blackened deathgrind)

Another cool one out on Transcending Obscurity today. Kind of sounds like a sludgy mix of Anaal Nathrakh and early Aborted, with a bit of hardcore and dissonance mixed in as well. Lovely stuff.