Mr Metal himself Gary Lee is once again back for us here at Musical Chairs, this time he gives us the second offering by Sylosis, as he continues to look towards their oncoming album release.
Leech is the second single taken from the upcoming Dormant Heart set to be released by Reading's Sylosis, this album will be the band's 4th studio album, and their 4th released on the Nuclear Blast label. Leech was released 21st November and is naturally available now.
Leech is a track
that I was hoping could lift Sylosis out of the “safe” category that their
previous offering Mercy placed them
in. At times, it feels like it might do just that. The off-kilter Arabian sounding melody
that beckons us in from the intro is a great starting point. But, sadly this
gives way to a “death metal by numbers” section, driven by an unimaginative and
repetitive rhythm duo, which leads me to question how much this band will miss former drummer Rob Callard, who stepped down in 2014. Mercifully the intro riff comes back prominently before
it is snatched away by “obligatory clean sung chorus” which to me feels little “pop
music” as though the chorus was crafted specifically to be sung along too.
As the song moves on, attempting to build up, it moves to
the bridge. Here we hit probably my prolonged favourite section of the track that
shows good musicianship, the solo is at least a nice morsel of ear-candy. I am also
particularly fond of the moment where the music drops out and slowly builds
back up towards the outro. However, once again I feel like all these “bits” of ingenuity, or musical
flash are held together by musical average.
That is not to say the guys in Sylosis have made a bad record, far from it. It is solid, but they are little too formulated for my tastes. Of course, there is always a time and a place for this type of music, even in metal. I can think of many times when I might see the value in listening to something that is good, but not necessarily complex or challenging. Sylosis, at least personally, fall into that bed. Once again I feel it would be harsh to suggest money should be spent elsewhere, as I stated in the Mercy review previous releases have shown that Sylosis can make good of deeper cuts. So once again I stress that while so far this album hasn't really offered me a spine tingling moment, there is no reason to believe there will not be a hidden gem somewhere in the deeper cuts. One way or another, we shall find out when I review the album Dormant Heart due 12th January.
Dormant Heart is available to pre order now.
Article by Gary Lee (@thewheelbear)
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