ALBUM REVIEW: THE NEW FLESH BY SYLOSIS
Reviewed by Cecilia Pattison-Levi
Release date 20 February 2026
Sylosis are at that point in their career that sees them ditching others’ expectations and creating an album (their seventh) that harks to their past but delivers their future. The British heavy metal band formed in Reading, Berkshire, are at the apex of their career. And ‘The New Flesh’ demonstrates it with 11 tracks stacked with melodic heavy hooks, razor sharp lyrics, huge guitar riffs and the psychological tone that is as heavy-as-hell through the bassline and drums.
Sylosis open the album with ‘Beneath The Surface’ and the track has an eerie start before the huge guitar riffage starts in an explosion of sound as the bass thumps with the rapid drumming. The song decries lies that hold people downcast as “the world tries to swallow you” and take you “down before spitting you out”. The second track is the fantastic ‘Erased’ that encapsulates the brutality and catchiness in Sylosis’ music: the clean and vocal singing shows that perfect symbiosis. ‘All Glory, No Valour’ is a drum and bassline heavy track with big guitar riffage and machine gun fire lyrics about the “world knowing your lies/ you just don’t know it yet”.
The song ‘Lacerations’ that was a single release, and it has a haunting synth line before the big guitars sweep in and the vocal attack starts. It’s hooky, heavy and those guitars are working. The clean vocals are beautiful or “is it a chemical feeling”. ‘Mirror Mirror’ continues the instrumental assault with a huge wall of sound but the spoken vocals are great and very different in style. Then, ‘Spared From The Guillotine’ cues the drums and bassline attack with duelling feedback as the lyrics talk about cutting things and people “down to size” as the guitar solo wails.
The last part of the album has the psychological doom of ‘Adorn My Throne’ where disciples are lost in the flames with the chugging guitars. Then, ‘The New Flesh’ extends the metaphor further with the huge guitar riffs and beautiful solos underpinning a classic thrash influence about new creation made flesh.
The acoustic like ballad of ‘Everywhere At Once’ is just fantastic. The clean singing, the beautiful melody and guitar work are an album highlight. It’s understated but so powerful “every breath is like a twist in my side” and the protagonist mourns the past. Then, ‘Circle Of Swords’ follows and it’s a return to destructive riffing and harsh vocal fry and rapid fire drums.
The album ‘The New Flesh’ closes out with ‘Seeds In The River’ and it hits hard with the bass, guitar, drum wall of sound as the hard vocal fry states “do my eyes deceive me” as they see people “washed away like rain that we were never here” like seeds that cannot grow and “cannot be delivered”. It’s a dark ending “waiting for life to start”.
Sylosis has delivered an album ‘The New Flesh’ that is lament about looking back. It has all the heavy guitar riffing, big basslines and drums but it has melodic intent with a message about fighting those dark feelings and encouraging fans to grasp life and live it in “new flesh”.
