Review: Sylosis - Dormant Heart
By Eric Perzanowski, Staff Writer
[Nuclear Blast; 2015]
Rating: 7.5/10
Key Tracks: “Mercy,” “Quiescent”
British band Sylosis has garnered much-deserved acclaim and hype over the course of its existence, for both its excellent musicianship and infectious songwriting. Dormant Heart is the band’s first album since 2012’s massive Monolith. Monolith marked a significant achievement that seems to be the groundwork of the band’s forward direction. Dormant Heart builds upon the material and continues Sylosis’ progression.
Sylosis’ sound is a hybrid of sorts, incorporating various elements from different subgenres. This unique and distinct sound allows the band to exist outside of a definitive genre label; The riffs in particular sound heavily inspired by ‘80s thrash. In fact, it’s amazing some of them were able to remain unwritten throughout the initial wave of the 1980s Bay Area thrash movement. The vocal styles and song structure are more inspired by the melodic death metal scene.
Lead guitarist Josh Middleton, who’s doubled as Sylosis’ vocalist since the 2011 album Edge of the Earth, shows continued vocal growth from Monolith. Clean vocals appear more frequently on Dormant Heart, which is a positive, as Middleton’s smooth and melodic vocal delivery is a pleasant complement to his gruff, harsher execution. Closing track “Quiescent” is a great example of this cleaner style. The soft melancholy vocals that build over the song’s first half contribute to a grand finish.
Sylosis’ songwriting abilities also show improvement on Dormant Heart. With Monolith, Sylosis made a great progression upon anything previously heard in the band’s discography. Many progressive and technical elements were added on Monolith; Although that helped make a good album, there also seemed to be a slight dip in the songwriting quality. Dormant Heart keeps much of the progressiveness and technicality while showing more consistent songwriting.
While there are several tracks that don’t especially stand out, there is a much greater rate of songs that get stuck inside your head. Either a riff, or a chorus or a lyric will loop endlessly, but you willingly accept it.
“Mercy” is one of the best songs Sylosis has written over the course of its time as a group. Multiple dynamic and tempo changes combined with infectious hooks make “Mercy” a layered and interesting track.
If Dormant Heart is any indicator of what’s to come in the new year in terms of metal releases, then I’d say that we are in for a highly enjoyable 2015. Sylosis improves upon some of the areas in which I considered Monolith to be lacking. Giving the band’s track record, it’ll be interesting to see where it goes next.
