Category: news

  • Reviews: Belzebong, Bizarrekult, Darklore, Trauma Ray (Spike & Rick Eaglestone)

    Belzebong – The End is High (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Spike]

    Ever had that feeling where the world is ending but you’ve found a really comfortable sofa? That’s the vibe here. Poland’s premier purveyors of the “green abyss”, Belzebong, have returned with The End Is High, and frankly, it’s a total relief to hear a band that still understands that if you haven’t got a decent riff, you haven’t got a leg to stand on. No vocals. No frills. Just monolithic, instrumental stoner doom that moves with the glacial, sticky inevitability of spilt treacle.

    I’ve been listening to this stuff for ages now, and most bands forget that “slow” doesn’t have to mean “boring.” These lads? They get it.

    The opener Bong & Chain is a ten-minute lesson in tectonic movement. It’s got that thick, fuzz-drenched tone that makes your actual skull vibrate, properly cavernous stuff. I found myself wondering if they’d recorded it inside a hollowed-out mountain, but knowing this lot, it’s probably just a very expensive pedalboard and a lot of patience. It’s relentless. It’s heavy. It’s the sonic equivalent of being slowly buried in warm ash.

    Then you get 420 Horsemen, which aside from having a title that’s a bit of a wink and a nudge is a masterclass in the mid-paced groove. The solos on this one are genuinely surprising; they sort of swirl around the heavy lifting like psychedelic sparks in a dark room. It’s got a mammoth feel that far outweighs its five-minute runtime.

    Is it revolutionary? Probably not. But does it hit the spot when you want to feel the floorboards groan? Absolutely.

    Hempnotized and Reefer Mortis (again, the names are what they are) keep the pressure high. The former leans into a more hypnotic, repetitive trance that might actually be dangerous if you’re operating heavy machinery. There’s a simplicity to what they do that has to be admired, it’s honest music for people who appreciate the low-end frequencies that turn your internal organs into jelly.

    Perhaps the production is a tad too clean for the real “crust” enthusiasts, it’s got that professional Heavy Psych Sounds sheen but the sheer weight of the compositions keeps it grounded. It’s an album for the final procession. If the world is going to look like a burnt-out husk, at least we’ve got a decent soundtrack for the journey. 8/10

    Bizarrekult – Alt Som Finnes (Season Of Mist) [Rick Eaglestone]


    Bizarrekult returns with Alt Som Finnes — a third studio album born from personal crisis, searching introspection, and an unflinching desire to confront all there is.

    The opening track Hun wastes absolutely no time — a seething wall of crazed riffs and blistering howls that very much establishes the template for what follows. This feels like a genuine statement of intent that maintains the elements that have seen Bizarrekult carve out a fiercely individual niche within the Norwegian post-black metal scene.

    Blikket Hennes finds the album hitting its stride early — the all-consuming darkness of a guilty conscience rendered in dense, buzzing riffs and a vocal performance that cuts like broken glass — this right here is quintessential Bizarrekult. 

    This is exactly how Roman V. has maintained his status as one of post-black metal’s most intriguing figures — this has not been a quick rise but a well-measured campaign of deeply personal, quality craftsmanship that is very well executed and more importantly, authentic. The guest contribution from Yusaf “Vicotnik” Parvez of Dødheimsgard is an absolute masterstroke here — his soothing cleans breaking through the murk with an almost spectral grace that you simply have to hear to fully appreciate, nothing short of stunning in how effectively it reframes everything around it.

    Avmakt serves as a brief but necessary intensity shift — surging and seething in a fight for control before losing power entirely amidst melodies that fall then fade like dying pinpricks of light — and what an introduction it is to Håp, which features devastating dynamic shifts with a searching, meditative quality that alongside some brilliantly executed melodic progressions ticks all the boxes for me. 

    This is why I consider Avmakt the album’s absolute highlight. The most relentless and aggressive delivery follows with Drøm, which features a stunning multilingual dimension courtesy of Lina from Predatory Void — her vocals adding a layer of haunted desperation that elevates the track considerably.

    Verdens Verste brings the album back to where it had been previously, again using a wealth of dynamic shifts which on this occasion delves more into the post-metal ambient passages, but again the power, gut-wrenching rawness combined with atmospheric depth is certainly a cocktail that Bizarrekult delivers so well. The riff style here is particularly inspired, managing to feel both familiar and ferocious.

    Tomhet has a nice, bleakly cathartic vibe overall, but the darkness is never too far away — and remarkably, this closer breaks new ground as the first Bizarrekult song sung in English, with Kim Song Sternkopf of MØL lending additional vocal textures. If you’ve been following the post-black metal movement, I don’t think you would disagree that this would fit in perfectly alongside the genre’s modern classics — the passages where the clean vocals wash over the underlying heaviness are just so well developed and executed with precision.

    It is wave upon wave of searingly crafted riffs all wrapped in a ball of unbridled Norwegian post-black fury, tempered by genuine vulnerability and collaborative brilliance. Every layer given space to breathe but none allowed to diminish the crushing cumulative weight of the whole.

    A searingly personal and devastatingly expansive post-black metal triumph. 7/10

    Darklore – The Great Elven War (Self-Release) [Rick Eaglestone]

    Seven years on from their debut The Evil Of Man Brisbane’s blackened fantasy collective Darklore are back drawing from fantasy worlds so vivid you half expect to find yourself picking up a sword before the first song with The Great Elven War.

    Opener The Hunting Grounds does not ease you in – it announces Darklore with total authority, marching tempos and orchestral grandeur arriving together in a way that sets the tone for everything that follows. By the time the riff locks in properly you are already committed, and at nearly nine minutes it earns every second.

    Then comes one of the pre-release singles and easy to see why Descendants Of The Pale Moon is the story of fallen knights resurrected by a mysterious elven priestess and sent back to reclaim what was taken from them, and the music absolutely matches the drama of that concept. Soaring symphonics, aggressive guitar passages, and a colossal chorus that captures the march toward destiny. If you need one track to convince a friend of what this band is about, this is your first port of call.

    At over nine and a half minutes The Beast Of Beauclair this is the album’s longest track, and it absolutely justifies the runtime. Those Witcher 3 influences the band have spoken about are all over this one – there is a dark, morally complex quality to the atmosphere that makes it feel like a story being told rather than just a song being performed. The dynamics shift throughout with real purpose and the payoff when it finally arrives is enormous.

    Told from the perspective of Sauron himself as the hunt for the One Ring begins anew, Servants Of Sauron is the most direct and punishing track on the record. It is lean, relentless, and full of imagery of fire and shadow and conquest that the band deliver with absolute conviction. The shortest track on the album and it hits like a hammer – a future festival favourite without question. 

    This is followed by The North Remembers, a colourful centrepiece for the album and one of the most melodically rich tracks Darklore have written – it opens with light keyboards before the drums get going and carries that sense of momentum all the way through. There are Game Of Thrones echoes in the title, and you can feel them in the atmosphere, a kind of political grandeur sitting beneath the metal fury. It runs headlong into the next track and the sequence works brilliantly.

    Horns Of The Buffira is a full-throttle delivery that puts a grin on your face and demands you turn it up. There is a looseness to the energy here that feels almost celebratory before the album enters its final third, and it works as a vital bit of breathing room before things get truly epic.

    The album’s title track The Great Elven War is truly the centrepiece the album has been building toward. This is the song the band describe as their own original mythology – a saga of conflict, courage, and conquest – and it is quite simply phenomenal. Tempo changes arrive with real dramatic purpose, the orchestration swells to genuinely cinematic heights, and by the time it ends you realise you have been completely swept up in it.

    The closer, Wrath Of The High Heavens finishes things off in the most utterly mesmerising fashion. Wrath Of The High Heavens does not coast on what has come before it – it pushes again, demands again, and the end section in particular is the kind of thing you find yourself replaying immediately because you cannot quite believe what you just heard. It sends you back to track one without hesitation.

    Overall, The Great Elven War is a triumph – not just as a piece of fantasy metal, but as a body of work on their own terms. Laden with fantastical realms & riffs. 8/10

    Trauma Ray– Carnival (Dais Records) [Spike]

    Anything with a note of “shoegaze” on it and I’m here for it. This is my thing. And this thing from Trauma Ray works. As a background there has to be a specific kind of creative gold that can only be mined when a band is tired, anxious, and stuck in a room together for a frantic window of time between tours. 

    For Fort Worth’s Trauma Ray, that window opened in the summer of 2025, right as the success of their debut Chameleon was threatening to turn them into permanent residents of the van (thanks to getting this to review I check out the debut and it too is epic – spoiler alert). The result is Carnival, an EP that feels less like a collection of songs and more like a disorienting trip through a deserted amusement park which is fitting, given the photography that adorns the sleeve.

    It’s a record that understands the “shimmer” of shoegaze, but it’s anchored by a heavy, subterranean pulse that owes as much to Birmingham 1970 as it does to Reading 1991.

    The experience begins with Carousel, a wordless, unsettling threshold of static and downcast strums that serves as a warning: the lights are on, but nobody is home. It’s the perfect primer for Hannibal, a track that contorts the band’s anthemic power into something slithery and genuinely “evil.” There’s a distinct 90s grunge friction here, a nod to the sludgy, druggy textures of Dirt-era Alice in Chains, layered over power riffs that feel properly physical. It’s a study in teenage angst and rejection, delivered with a weight that suggests the band has stopped trying to be polite.

    The surrealism peaks with Méliès. Named after the French illusionist and cinematic pioneer, the track cuts between heavy, sludgy chords and a skyward chorus that feels like waking up from a nightmare only to realize the “real” world is just as abstract. Uriel Avila’s lines about making up realities to avoid the truth hit hard, backed by a production that allows the “dream state” to feel every bit as massive as the “scary” sections.

    For those who like their fuzz with a side of tectonic movement, Funhouse is the EP’s heart. As self-proclaimed “Sleep-heads,” the band drops the BPM to a doom-metal crawl, utilizing sparse guitar work and a call-and-response outro that feels like a tug-of-war between two fractured states of mind. It’s slow, it’s sticky, and it’s wonderful.

    The disorienting lights of the carnival finally bloom on the closer, Clown. It’s a jolting, pummelling finale that features a knotty, synthy lead guitar squall. It’s a sonic tribute to the “tragic happiness” of Robin Williams, synthesizing the technical complexity of 90s cult favourites like Failure with the omnipresent wash of Loveless-style feedback.

    What makes Carnival truly epic, however, is the “Black Sabbath heartbeat” sitting right underneath the shoegaze fuzz. It’s a record of five musicians absorbing their darkest subconscious corners and expanding them into something formidable. It’s moody, it’s cerebral, and it is a total masterstroke of disorienting, high-velocity gloom. 9/10
  • VOLCANDRA – Κυκλοφορούν το single “Beyond the Wills of Mortals”

    https://www.metalourgio.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/639725938_18215448991314780_8066226741987069939_n-768×512.jpg
  • AMYL & THE SNIFFERS Celebrate Tenth Anniversary With Special Release

    Ten years ago, in a sharehouse on Chapel Street, four 20-year-olds with zero expectations wrote and recorded an EP in a single afternoon. Those six blistering minutes of music became Giddy Up. An hour later, Amyl and The Sniffers had a name, a Bandcamp upload, and the beginnings of a legacy. Following a year of […]
  • Thundermother / Live ‘N’ Alive Album Due April 2026

    Thundermother share Hellevator - Live in Huskvarna as the latest taste of upcoming live album Live 'n' Alive, out April 17, 2026 via Napalm Records.

    Swedish rock ‘n’ roll powerhouse Thundermother have released a new live single, Hellevator – Live in Huskvarna, alongside an official live video. The track is the latest preview of the band’s upcoming live album Live ‘N’ Alive, out digitally on 17 April 2026 via Napalm Records, with physical editions due on 10 July 2026.

    “I’m going down, down, down below… In the Hellevator you cannot pray… and this would be the perfect elevator song, don’t you think, asks Filippa Nässil. “It’s all about fun, and this song has always been so fun ever since we wrote it, haha. Stream it loud!”

    Recorded on the European headline tour that followed 2025’s Dirty & Divine, Live ‘N’ Alive captures Thundermother’s 2025 setlist with no backing tracks, overdubs or re-recording – 100% live.

    “It’s all live,” Nässil said. “We use no backing tracks like almost every band does today. We have made no overdubs or re-recording of instruments. It’s ALL live and rock’ n’ roll. Me on guitar, Majsan Lindberg on bass, Joan Massing on drums, and Linnéa Vikström on lead vox and rhythm guitars on some songs. Song order is not compromised. It’s our setlist of 2025, through and through. Hell yeah, this is how it’s done.”

    Hellevator follows on the back of the first single, Whatever. “Whatever is dear to our hearts, as it’s a song we’ve played at every gig since its release in 2018,” Nässil said. “It’s one of my all-time favourite songs to perform. The live version differs from the studio recording, featuring a longer, four-on-the-floor guitar solo. The war against drugs continues. You don’t need drugs to be rock ‘n’ roll, but you DO need adrenaline.”

    Thundermother – Live ‘N’ Alive tracklist

    1. Can You Feel It – Live in Cologne
    2. Loud and Free – Live in Cologne
    3. The Road Is Ours – Live in Cologne
    4. So Close – Live in Huskvarna
    5. Bright Eyes – Live in Huskvarna
    6. Take The Power – Live in Copenhagen
    7. Dead Or Alive – Live in Huskvarna
    8. I Don’t Know You – Live in Cologne
    9. Sleep – Live in Cologne
    10. I Left My License In The Future – Live in Copenhagen
    11. Dog From Hell – Live in Huskvarna
    12. Can’t Put Out The Fire – Live in Copenhagen
    13. Whatever – Live in Gothenburg
    14. Shoot To Kill – Live in Cologne
    15. Try With Love – Live in Copenhagen
    16. Thunderous – Live in Copenhagen
    17. Hellevator – Live in Huskvarna
    18. Speaking Of The Devil – Live in Huskvarna
    19. Driving In Style – Live in Huskvarna

    Thundermother - Live 'n' Alive out 17 April 2026 via Napalm Records.
    Thundermother – Live ‘n’ Alive out 17 April 2026 via Napalm Records.

    Thundermother are
    Filippa Nässil – Guitar, backing vocals
    Majsan Lindberg – Bass, backing vocals
    Linnaea Vikstrom Egg – Lead vocals, guitar
    Joan Massing – Drums

    The post Thundermother / Live ‘N’ Alive Album Due April 2026 first appeared on MetalTalk – Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.
  • The Beauty Of Gemina Release Endless Ever Single Ahead Of 2026 Tour

    The Beauty Of Gemina Release Endless Ever Single Ahead Of 2026 Tour

    Swiss dark rock outfit The Beauty Of Gemina have released their new single Endless Ever, coinciding with a run of German tour dates beginning on February 26 in Augsburg.

    “Endless Ever is about waiting as a state of being,” Songwriter and singer Michael Sele explains, “about a love or hope that is greater than time. Night represents doubt, dawn represents the promise that everything will eventually resolve itself. I wanted to capture that feeling when seconds hurt because you miss someone, time loses its meaning, and in the end all that remains is the endless clinging to hope.”

    Built on melancholic guitar lines, a steady pulse and the interplay of minor and major harmonies, Endless Ever explores longing, timeless connection and the feeling of time losing its meaning.

    More details and tour ticket information, is available at thebeautyofgemina.com.

    Tour dates 2026

    • 26.02.2026 – Augsburg (DE) – Spectrum
    • 27.02.2026 – Koln (DE) – Groove Bar
    • 28.02.2026 – Frankfurt (DE) – Das Bett
    • 06.03.2026 – Stuttgart (FL) – Im Wizemann Studio
    • 07.03.2026 – Oberhausen (DE) – Kulttempel
    • 20.03.2026 – Hannover (DE) – LUX
    • 21.03.2026 – Hamburg (DE) – Bahnhof Pauli
    • 22.03.2026 – Berlin (DE) – Badehaus
    • 27.03.2026 – Leipzig (DE) – Moritzbastei
    • 28.03.2026 – Tuttlingen (DE) – Stadthalle Tuttlingen
    The post The Beauty Of Gemina Release Endless Ever Single Ahead Of 2026 Tour first appeared on MetalTalk – Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.
  • Interview: Philippe Drouin Obvurt

    Philippe Drouin has been developing Obvurt since 2019, turning it into a technically demanding solo project centered around double-neck guitar performance. With Le chemin du gaucher pushing that concept even further, we spoke with him about relearning guitar left-handed, writing for two necks at once, and taking this material to the stage.

    Hi Philippe! You started using the Obvurt name back in 2019. What were you trying to do then? Was it already this intense?

    I tried to recover and start back where life stops for me back in 2016, I was trying to play lefty and I needed a motivation to move on and stay focused, else, I couldn’t do what I did, learning to play as a lefty guitarist. Intense, yes, for me because I am not a lefty and I was at my debut.

    The 2023 session at CKRL 89.1 — did that feel like a test, or just another gig?

    Both of them. I never played the double guitar in front of people before. We were doing a live stream and the camera was pointing me, 2 months later, I had my first solo gig as The Scanner.

    Playing the full Obvurt – The Beginning alone with a double guitar is a bold move. Did you ever think, “This might crash and burn”?

    No. I played these songs over and over.
    One good thing in being solo is you practice your gig whenever you want.

    You got that Dean double guitar from Michael Angelo Batio. Be honest — did that instrument scare you at first?

    I played with a limited run of Double Sawtooth guitar, I learn the beginning ep with that guitar and wrote riffs of Patience song. A year later, Michael sold me his guitar and then, I moved on writing on this instrument.

    What was the hardest part to get under control: timing, muting, stamina?

    Adding vocals to the guitars, and do not play so many wrong notes in a song. Getting a great sound took time, Now I play with my Quad cortex and my Double guitar, and I am ready to go.

    When you write, do you hear both necks in your head, or do you build one part and force the other to fight with it?

    I always write both hands at the same time. Everything on a double guitar is x2. Writing a full song on the double is twice longer than writing on a guitar.

    At what point did the double guitar stop being a cool idea and start becoming necessary?

    When I played my own songs adding vocals to it. Hell yeah, this is so cool.

    Le chemin du gaucher — why that title? Is it about being different, or about going against something specific?

    Because I am still trying to be a left handed every day of my life. I am not, and maybe never be. But I will do my best to be the best false lefty I can ever be. Playing lefty guitar is very difficult; there are 6 strings so many techniques and speed to master. Even right handed, playing guitar is everyday life’s goal.

    Compared to your older songs, what did you refuse to repeat this time?

    I refused a while ago because I wasn’t able to play them, I had to relearn to play first. Now, I play them. I play The Unbreakable Hatred songs now but Obvurt is different, a different style and playing. Philippe Drouin Obvurt is only the double.

    A lot of technical metal sounds impressive but empty. How did you make sure yours wasn’t?

    I didn’t make sure, I just did it my way. It was my first double-guitar album and I am happy of the turnout. I created techniques on the double and make riffs out of them.

    Releasing this through Brutal Mind — does that add pressure?

    Not at all, Obvurt released the first ep in 2021 with Brutal Mind. Brutal Mind is great.

    When John Longstreth from Origin sent you the drum tracks, did anything feel faster or heavier than you expected? Did he play anything that made you rethink your own riffs?

    I gave him the liberty to write the drum parts and I am very happy of the drum tracks. It feels faster than Obvurt till now. Just mind blowing.

    For the release show in January 2026, Mitch is stepping in. Are you adjusting parts for the stage, or keeping them ruthless?

    I play notes for notes the guitars I recorded, my right hand delivers the bass and Mitch arranged the songs, drums and bass parts are not 100% live.

    What’s the biggest risk when you bring this material live? Bring some people to the show?

    When your band’s name is your own name, that might be harder to make people listen and come to the shows.

    Does “the left-hander’s path” mean you feel outside the scene?

    No, it means I am still to learn how to be a left handed player, I will till I die!!

    If someone says your music is “too technical,” what’s your response?

    It comes from the heart, take the time to listen.

    What still frustrates you when you listen back to the record?

    I spell a wrong word in a song, every time I listen to it I am laughing.

    Right now, what are you chasing — speed, heaviness, control, something else?

    That’s a good question, I try to write the best songs I can, the best melody, bass lines, harmony, and try to always explore new scales or techniques.

    https://www.facebook.com/Philipedrouin

  • Album review: Starbenders – The Beast Goes On

    From the day we first saw them it was obvious Starbenders lived in a world of blurred lines. While being genre elusive can be a good thing, the Atlanta quartet didn’t quite have the songs to start fires in the way certain other, similarly mysterious bands have. Perhaps leaving it to album number four is too late, but one’s thing for sure – they’ve got it right his time.

    Both the title-track and Hello Goodbye come with that funereal goth-glam radiance so beloved by fans of greatly missed acts like HIM and Type O Negative. Then they punk things up on Nothing Ever Changes before striking out into classic alt.pop mode on Chantilly Boy. All this is just for starters. Brilliantly-named singer Kimi Shelter is just a shot away from perfect on the likes of Tokyo and Cold Silver, and the way the band layer timeless harmonies onto witchy, supernatural weirdness rarely fails to fascinate. If I was perfect I wouldn’t need the pills,’ Kimi purrs on Cold Silver, one of several tunes that’ll simply be too good to ignore.

    On board with this or not, it’s fun to think of rock’s gatekeepers getting all red-faced as this lot prance around in fishnet and lycra. That said, there’s nothing ephemeral about it – these are songs that straddle fashion, embrace everything from synth-pop to metal, and twist it all up with a disconcerting otherness that might yet make stars of them.

    True, this 13-song album could have been tightened up by losing a couple, but they save a winning ace till the end, bowing out with 21st Century (Digital Boy), a merry gallop that mates retro with non-binary futurism. Indeed, what Starbenders do here only looks like nostalgia’ for those who never liked those tropes in the first place. For those that did, The Beast Goes On is boundary-pushing and ear-grabbing, a silky goth delight.

    Verdict: 3/5

    For fans of: Palaye Royale, Poppy, Ville Valo

    The Beast Goes On is released on February 27 via Sumerian.

    Posted on February 24th 2026, 9:00a.m.

  • Live Review: Sylosis – Manchester

    Live Review: Sylosis – O2 Ritz, Manchester

    21st February 2025
    Support: Revocation, Distant and Life Cycles

    Words & Photos:
    Tom Atkin

    Saturday 21st February 2026. A perfect storm in Manchester. We’re not talking about the biblical levels of rain either! No, a number of high profile gigs were taking place on this night, including headline sets from Crowbar, and Between The Buried And Me ensuring that fans of heavy music would be spoiled for choice tonight! Though 1400 or so metalheads chose to spend their Saturday night at the O2 Ritz for a different occasion.

    British thrash-metalcore standouts Sylosis had been touring the UK and Europe, with venues on the continent selling out and many more coming damn close to! They would return to the O2 Ritz for the first time since November 2024, when they were in support of Fit For An Autopsy. Now one place higher on what the band had described as their biggest headline tour yet. All in the name of promoting “The New Flesh” which had released one day prior, and had already begun to accumulate respectable reviews from the likes of ourselves, Kerrang and Decibel magazine, amongst other publications. This alongside a stacked undercard featuring Life Cycles, Distant, and Revocation ensured all the ingredients were there for a special night…

    45 minutes after 6pm doors, Life Cycles made their way to the stage. No fancy cinematic entrances. Just a simple walk on. Though the hyping up the crowd had begun before a single note had been played. See, normally it’s the opening band’s job to warm the crowd up. Life Cycles seemed hellbent on starting a raging inferno and unhinged frenzy! The Manchester crowd were primed and ready on this Saturday night and absorbed their infectious energy. A style rooted in thrash and hardcore (think Municipal Waste) fronted by the super energetic Jeremy Cuevas was enough to open up the pit two songs in and ensured the night would begin early for the security staff when we saw our first crowd surfers! Even slower yet bruising encounters like ‘The End Remains’ kept the energy flowing. An introduction to the band for many tonight, and a mighty fine introduction at night. Whoever was next, good luck!

    Anybody within a one mile radius of the Ritz between 19.30-20.00 may have heard a series of deafening earth shaking rumbles! This was not an earthquake though. No, this was due to the unparalleled heaviness of Dutch deathcore destroyers Distant! This was no place for refined technical passages nor sophisticated song writing. No melody nor light could possibly shine through this cavernously dense mix designed to cause maximum unhinged carnage. Vocalist and front man Alan Grnja was leading the charge, ordering the largest circle pit of the night up until this point and ensuring security had earned their wages with more going airborne. Those not in the pit were ordered to crouch down and leap up on his signal at the beginning of the final song, ensuring everybody was part of the show. Investment in a more refined lighting and overall visual display would have maximised this feeling of engagement and immersion though it must be said. Nonetheless, this felt like a step up in quality and 30 minutes felt too short for a band of this calibre. Conversely, this also ensured the old energy reserves could be saved for the next band.

    Deep into the night now and time for Revocation.  Another band riding the momentum of a recent and critically acclaimed album with “New Gods New Masters” dropping in late 2025. Whereas Distant represented the more primitive and brutal side of metal, Revocation offered a vastly more technical and aesthetic taste of thrash. Think of the early Bay Area scene sound but with a more modern and polished edge. Frontman David Davidson delivered a solid vocal performance though bassist Alex Weber proved to be a more than adequate deputy. David barely needed to say anything to keep this white hot crowd engaged. Though security were kept more than busy with the ante upped considerably, something the band acknowledged and thanked them for. Sadly, pleas for one more song could not be satisfied due to the time constraints of the schedule. Is there a greater compliment for a band to hear a crowd shout those sacred three words?

    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin

    With all the support slots finished, the shared backline could now be swept away from the stage. This meant that the sophisticated lighting rig, towering drum riser, and other tools Sylosis would need for a highly produced headline set could be unveiled. Survivor’s timeless classic ‘Eye Of The Tiger’ played over the PA to get everybody in the mood for a sing along. Then, the lights went down. The roar from the crowd became deafening. A cinematic and dramatic walk on followed, and then straight into ‘Erased’. Then it began! 

    Let’s be clear. I’ve seen some carnage at this very venue in recent times. Being right at the front for both Igorrr and Jinjer’s headline sets offered the optimal vantage point to see this first hand. What we saw on this night for Sylosis definitely ranks up there with those most chaotic of scenes. Especially with a circle pit that threatened to swallow the entire O2 Ritz, and a seemingly never ending stream of bodies going over the barrier!

    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin

    Though it’s not all about the brutal breakdowns and neck snapping riffs. Believe me, there were plenty. Especially during ‘Heavy Is The Crown’. See, Josh Middleton spoke of his intention to write songs that are heavy but anthemic too on “The New Flesh”. Take ‘Lacerations’ for instance. 

    “Are you alive? Living with a sinking feeling”

    Look in any direction and you could see legions of fans echoing the infectious chorus back to the band. With it still being unheard to many, give it a few more years and you can guarantee every single person in a venue of this size will be singing along! That’s if Sylosis haven’t outgrown venues like the O2 Ritz. Scenes like this paint a picture of a band who have forged a special connection with a fiercely devoted fanbase which will surely be the driving force in the band’s continuing upward trajectory. They hadn’t forgotten about their older fans either, and still made room for older classics like ‘Teras’ and from their early “Conclusion Of An Age” days! Speaking to a deep respect that Sylosis have for their fans.

    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin

    Seventy five minutes felt like the optimal time for a closing set. At 22:45, the Manchester collective had clearly reached their limit and an encore may have pushed them over that. 

    Some may have doubted Sylosis’ ability to handle the pressure that comes with a headline tour like this. Though after tonight, those doubts surely should be erased as they made this seamless transition when the lights were on bright.

    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin

    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin

    For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

    The post Live Review: Sylosis – Manchester appeared first on The Razor's Edge.

  • Live Gallery: Sylosis – London

    Live Gallery: Sylosis – O2 Forum, Kentish Town

    20th February 2026
    Support: Heaven Shall Burn, The Black Dahlia Murder

    Photos: Tom Atkin

    We look back at the eventful Sylosis show through the eyes of our photographer Tom Atkin!

    Sylosis

    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin

    Heaven Shall Burn

    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin

    The Black Dahlia Murder

    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
    Photo Credit: Tom Atkin

    All photo credits: Tom Aktin

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