SO MANY RIFFS
With everyone recovering from the absolute battering delivered by Decapitated just half an hour before, it was reasonable to fear how exactly Sylosis were going to be able to follow it. The recent history for this band has been great, releasing the brilliant Dormant Heart last year and being involved in a number of huge tours, including Megadeth/Lamb Of God most recently. One criticism they always seem to get, although not one we completely agree with, is the fact that their lack of showmanship live, to some extent, adversely affects the performance as a whole. Well, to anyone who has said that before, that opinion will have been shot to pieces if you’d seen this show tonight at The Electric Ballroom. After the task of following Decapitated initially appeared a daunting one, as soon as they hit the stage any concerns were brushed quickly aside.
Opening with Indoctrinated the onslaught of riffs began. There are few bands in Metal at the moment churning out riffs of the level of consistent quality as Sylosis, and live each one becomes a whole new monster. Luckily for them, this is a venue which does always seems to deliver as far as the sound is concerned, with every element to the band’s music sounding crisp and tight for the whole performance. The way they went about this set from start to finish stemmed from how good Decapitated were before them. That’s the excellent thing about this tour as a whole; we’ve got two Metal bands at their best, and whether consciously or not, night after night they’re trying to better each other.
The triple header of Leech, Mercy and Servitude proved to be the highlight of the night, the latter of the three tracks in particular sounding so big one can only imagine the next time you hear anything as loud and powerful at the same time it will be the beginning of the apocalypse.
Overall then, Sylosis delivered an absolutely brilliant performance, especially after having to follow that Decapitated show. After several hours of pummelling riffs between the two bands, Sylosis closed up their set with Altered States Of Consciousness. Very apt indeed.