I've been aware about Sylosis for a while now, mainly because of their vocalist and lead guitarist Josh Middleton who's also a member of the metalcore band Architects. Sylosis has a very distinctly different style to Architects, which makes it a pretty interesting band to follow and listen to. My first and only experience from them was with Worship Decay, but they recently dropped the single Deadwood which has pleasantly taken me by surprise.
Deadwood features their modernised version of classic heavy metal in full force, with energetic riffs and fast-paced drumming throughout. The intensity in this song is dynamic yet relentless, which is a hard balance to find. I love the use of tremolo picking, super fun lead work, tasteful chug patterns and classic metalcore riffage that makes the entire verse super punchy and vibrant. I also love the super sharp bell-like sound that I can only assume is someone hammering metal or something equally ridiculous. It's a super fun sonic texture to replace what usually would be a cymbal in its place.
Can I just say, what a great chorus. The hook is so effective and catchy, and more so with the quality sing-scream delivered by Josh himself. The guitars and drums underneath provide such a groovy rhythm to the chorus that makes me want to headbang in such an unhinged way, and for a chorus this seemingly simple, it is unbelievably effective and impactful as a moment.
When it comes to the breakdown, it definitely has the more traditional metal vibes to it, especially since it's followed up by a very classic type of guitar solo. It definitely has a robustness to it, the fast sweep picking underlaid with spacious chugs, and a bit of wah near the end to add some style.
The clean vocals in the bridge is quite an underrated part of this song, I didn't even notice it the first few times, but he has quite an amazing voice, I love the subtle grit in his cleans and the kind of soulfulness that's generally not found in metal music. There's nothing too special with the end of the song but I love the little unhinged scream at the end after the instrumental is done, a little fun tidbit similar to the endings of songs like Every Time I Die's All This And War and Parkway Drive's Bottom Feeder.
Even with Sylosis' reputation as a beastly modern metal machine, I haven't had reason to be curious about their music, not until now. Deadwood is a really well made song in a flavour of modern metal that I don't usually enjoy this much, and it very well might be a highlight of 2023.
Rating: 3.5/5