Interviews

Josh Middleton – Sylosis ‘We’ll Definitely Try And Cover Every Album on Australian Tour’

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Heavy Metal Wordsmith

Dec 10, 2024

7 min read

It’s been a very long time since Sylosis have graced Australian shores and after a 12 year absence, the monolith metal band will finally return next month in support of their immaculate album A Sign Of Things To Come and the recently released EP The Path. The last 10 years have seen the band’s sound develop into a wealth of new areas and their dynamic range widen exponentially. A Sign Of Things To Come is the band at their absolute best, with their songwriting, production and performances at an entire new level.

Speaking with vocalist/guitar Josh Middleton, the intention with the album was to set the tone with as much as impact as possible.

‘I was guilty in the past of always being a guitarist in the back of my mind and thought I could just scream over songs as long as the riffs were good. I definitely had a lot more attention to detail on the vocals this time around and wanted the emphasis to be on making the vocals good. I guess I’m doing a bit more melodic singing and I just happened to get better at that as the years went on.

I’ve definitely seen people saying that the album isn’t as melodic as earlier stuff, and I can kind of see that in a way as there are different elements, and the riffs might not be as melodic. We’ll always have quite a full, wide spectrum of different sounds, but the emphasis was to make a more visceral and heavy record.’

Long-time listeners of Sylosis will know that band’s earlier records lean into the more traditional metal space in a big way, where the new record has more ‘core’ elements than ever before. While it may have come as a surprise to some, Middleton explains that those sounds and influences have been in the Sylosis history from the very beginning.

‘We recently did a short documentary about the early days of the band and basically, the latest record is really the closest the band would’ve sounded if we were talented enough when we began. We started the band in 2000 but we didn’t do our first album until 2008, so there’s this whole period that no one knows about.

When we started, it was all about Pantera’s The Great Southern Trendkill, Slipknot’s Iowa, and Machine Head’s The More Things Change. We were downtuned and just wanted to be the heaviest band possible. The fact that there’s more groove and chuggy riffs on the new album is more us going back to our roots, it’s just the roots that no one knows about, so people think this is a new sound for us.

When we started releasing records with Nuclear Blast, the whole metalcore and deathcore thing was going on. We didn’t want to be lumped in with all the metalcore bands, so we didn’t downtune or play anything that resembled a breakdown because we didn’t want people to confuse us with all of those bands. Now, I don’t care about that and I think the elitism isn’t quite as prevalent in metal these days. I think we’ve shown that we’re a proper metal band and that we have a lot of respect from the metal world.’

Having spent 5+ years playing guitar and writing for Architects after the tragic passing of guitarist Tom Searle, Sylosis took a backseat of sorts for a while. With Middleton stepping away from Architects midway through 2023, it allowed his focus to return to Sylosis, with a newfound outlook on how to approach writing and getting creative input from those around him.

‘When I joined Architects, the first record I started writing was Holy Hell and Dan [Searle] wasn’t really writing much then. So, I’d write a song, send it to him and he’d have more of a producer role where he’d take parts and rearrange what I’d wrote, then send me back something different. That was incredibly jarring and incredibly tough to get used to, because no one had ever done that with me before.

Revisiting Sylosis, it was good because I am less tightly holding the reins and I was actively seeking out either from my manager, our producer or the guys in the band, ways for the songs to be better. Whereas back in the day, it wasn’t like I wouldn’t listen to anyone, I just wouldn’t seek it out.’

With 12 years of making up to do, Sylosis are eager to return to Australia after such an extended absence to reconnect with long time fans as well as connect with those who’ve jumped on board in recent years. With three full length albums, an EP and a number of singles released since their last visit, crafting a setlist that speaks to their extensive catalogue isn’t going to be an easy one.

‘It’s a tough one. I think Australia seems to be a great market for us and it seems to have grown a lot by looking at the streaming numbers and such. I think a lot of people will be coming to these shows have joined on the newer records, which is a bonus for us because that’s the stuff that goes down way better live.

We’ll definitely try and cover every album in the set. We’ve always had fans in Australia since the first two records, so we don’t want to just stick to the new stuff.’

Interview by Nicholas Simonsen @blackechomusic

Sylosis return to Australia with Angelmaker and LUNE supporting in February.

Tickets Here