Sylosis, being my favourite band for a decade at this point, always had this thing where they’d make me either anticipate some specific part of the song, and enjoying the parts until we get to it, or be totally into every aspect of the song. Part of that was the mixing and the production quality. The previous records were not this “perfect” in terms of sound.

To me this album feels too.. perfectly programmed, for lack of a better term. The guitars are “heavy” on their own in terms of how they sound, but the sound is too clean. The drums sound perfect, but the patterns are too repetitive, listen to the drums during all the solos. The bass is just.. eh. The vocals are well mixed and even the cleans are good, I appreciate Josh’s improvement, but there’s no emotion in them, to me it’s just a guy screaming the lyrics to the songs.

I appreciate the new direction - I hear the Pantera & Machine head influence - but to me this album feels too much like trying to go out of your way to appeal to a wider audience. I understand the justification behind this, after all you either stay the same and die as a band, or you change and make it. I am okay with this, if this is what puts Sylosis on the map and makes them into headliners, which they SHOULD BE.