The Supreme Oppressor is the second release from Reading metallers Sylosis. In keeping with the traditions of In The Deep End Records, it’s a short album of uncompromisingly heavy music.
Clocking in at about half an hour, The Supreme Oppressor packs a lot of power into a small space. Sylosis are drawing on a number of strands of metal style for their inspiration, and while there’s plenty of bright epic melody to be heard, there’s no shortage of brutal strength – very much in keeping with the British underground scene’s love of hardcore dynamics.
Laying down a bedrock of double-kick drumming and metalcore chugging alongside frantic hammered riffs and wide-bend solos, Sylosis raise the ghost of thrash with the modern magic of technical metal. Frontman Jamie, formerly of Raise The Dead, provides bellowing vocals that you can actually understand – which reveals the brutal aesthetic of the lyrics.
After The Supreme Oppressor’s eponymous (and somewhat extraneous) pseudo-orchestral intro, Sylosis unleash every trick in the book without pinning themselves under one sub-genre. “Manipulation Through Idols” is a high speed all-out assault on the senses that puts the skinny-jeans metalcore pretenders in their place, while “Turbulence” has a much more old-school vibe to it, albeit updated with contemporary ideas.
Album closer “Blind Desperation” is probably my favourite track on The Supreme Oppressor, as it pulls together all the threads that stitch through the other tunes into one coherent but varied piece. Perhaps in homage to their thrash roots, Sylosis have also included the obligatory acoustic instrumental track in the form of “Silence From Those In The Sky” - which is all well and good, but feels a little like wasted space on a mini-album like this. I can’t imagine Sylosis playing it live.
The Supreme Oppressor is yet another example of an independent British metal band showing they can contend with the worldwide big names, at least as far as the actual music is concerned, and being an In At The Deep End release it’s very affordable. Sylosis will make a fine addition to the collection of the modern metal gourmet.
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Tags: hardcore, metal, metalcore, Sylosis, technical metal, The Supreme Oppressor, thrash
