 
Since I’ve been giving Sylosis not the best
of live reviews recently but always said they
were musically brilliant, I’m giving them
a chance to redeem themselves from disappointing
me at the live shows with some new material. First
release without Jamie Graham the singer on the
phenomenal “Conclusion of the Age”
album, the band are out in force with this album
to prove that losing him hasn’t killed them
off and they can still put out amazing songs.
One thing’s for sure, with Jamie or not,
that guitar work and for that matter all of the
instrumental work is amazing! Theme wise with
“Conclusion of an Age” you felt impending
doom for mankind on earth but with “Edge
of the Earth” I’m feeling a sort of
outer space vibe in some sections of the album
with the eerie feel in the background it just
feels like looking down on the earth as its being
blown apart but not being involved which is less
exiting and less chaotic in comparison.
Now to look at the main change with the new album,
the vocals; I will say this in my opinion Jamie
had a much larger vocal range than Josh Middleton
and could reach lower and higher notes, Josh’s
vocals are mainly deep and then high with no build
up or notes in-between which is a downside. Having
said that the sound isn’t bad its actually
really good metal vocals just held back by the
fact the previous release had much better ones
to put it bluntly. I think that’s hit the
key theme, the previous album had better elements
of it which is what will always hold this album
back.
The chorus’s aren’t as catchy in this
particular album whereas with the previous every
chorus was infectious and memorable where as new
songs like “Awakening”, “Kingdom
of Solitude” and “Apparitions”
don’t really leave any vocal imprints in
the mind; saying that there are a few songs on
the album that are quite memorable such as “Sands
of Time”, “Altered States of Consciousness”
and “A Serpents Tongue” these are
the very first songs I heard from the new album
and they’ve been pretty much imprinted in
my mind ever since, just a shame not all the tacks
live up to the same standards.
There are a couple of instrumentals thrown into
this happen which was bound to happen when the
full time singer left and they are “Empyreal
(Part 2)” and “Where The Sky Ends”
and they are truly spectacular displays of just
how good the band are as musicians regardless
of the vocals Josh Middleton is a tremendous young
British guitarist.
Overall to sum up, I thoroughly enjoyed this album
and it proves they can still put out great music
that’s ridiculously technical and heavy;
the fact however still remains that this is not
as good as “Conclusion of an Age”
by a long shot but there is potential in this
new album to get back to that point if they sort
something out with vocals and lyrics then they
could still be the next great British metal band
(If they sort that live show out anyway or they
are not going anywhere).
4/5
Review by James Webb
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