‘A Sign of Things to Come’ with SYLOSIS’ JOSH MIDDLETON
British Metal titans SYLOSIS are finally on their way to Australia for the first time since Soundwave Festival 2013. But as their fans know, the wait will have been worth it! From the fiery modern thrash of their 2008 debut album Conclusion Of An Age to the direct, holistic savagery of 2023’s highly-acclaimed A Sign Of Things To Come, SYLOSIS have proudly flown the flag for fiercely sophisticated and defiantly uncompromising metal.
Marco had the chance to sit down with lead vocalist/guitarist Josh Middleton ahead of the band’s upcoming return to Australia for the first time since 2013.
DS: Hey Josh, thanks so much for taking the time to meet with me. How are you doing today?
J: Very good, thanks. How are you?
DS: Yeah, good, good. Sylosis has just wrapped up a run of summer festival shows. How did these shows go and were there any highlights?
J: Yeah, they were amazing. Yeah, we had a lot of fun. We haven't done summer festivals in like eight years or something, just before we went on hiatus. Yeah, amazing. They were all very good. I think one of the best ones was Summer Breeze Festival in Germany. It was a pretty big crowd. Yeah, it was fun.
DS: Hell yeah, that would have been sick. Alright, Sylosis will return to Australia for the first time in over 10 years. I know you've previously toured here since with Architects, but are you excited to be coming back to Australian soil?
J: Yes, 100%! And I genuinely mean it when I say it's one of my favourite places to play, like the weather, the people, food, coffee. Excellent. It's just the travel, getting there sucks. And admittedly, internally there's a lot of flights between shows. The internal flying in Australia is usually pretty easy going, so it's just getting there that sucks. But yeah, I think Australia is like the closest personality wise and sense of humour wise to the UK, so we always get on with everyone there.
DS: Yeah, awesome. Do you have any exciting memories from Sylosis’ last run of Aussie shows for the Soundwave Festival 2013?
J: Yeah, it was amazing. It was the ‘Big 4’ I think. I mean Metallica were doing it. And the first night they hosted a barbecue for all the bands. So yeah, that was amazing. And like all the flights- the private charter flights were just the bands. So you're just rubbing shoulders with all these amazing artists and stuff. And we had some fun days off. Yeah, nothing too crazy, but it was just a good time.
DS: How have you found coming back to Sylosis and focusing on that full time now?
J: Yeah, great. It's just like musically where I feel most at home. I'm one of those rare people that just listens to metal and super heavy stuff day in, day out. So yeah, it kind of just feels like home, I guess.
DS: Yeah, sweet. ‘Cycle of Suffering’ and ‘Dormant Heart’ were produced solely by you. How did you feel bringing Scott Atkins back for ‘A Sign of Things to Come’?
J: Yeah, I mean, admittedly, although he was credited as a producer, he definitely was more engineering those records. And he would try and put in- I think in the early days I was way more protective over our music and hopefully not in like some arrogant, egotistical way, but it's just like, "Oh, I've spent all this time, like the song is done." Whereas now, and admittedly, I think working in Architects and having to collaborate more, because I was the new guy, but I was also, at least on Holy Hell, like the only guy writing. And Dan would be kind of reworking the stuff and producing my music. So he started writing as well. And having to just kind of let go a bit more, and now I kind of look for that. It was uncomfortable to begin with, to get used to it, but now I kind of seek it out. I kind of want people to- I just want the album to be as good as it can be and have people tell me what they think sucks. And I'm mature enough to be able to deal with that *laughs*.
DS: Yeah, of course. It's always hard being the artist and having someone else come in and try and change things when you've got this vision. But it's always good to have other people's opinions as well.
J: Yeah, exactly.
DS: The Sylosis image went through a bit of a visual update and modernisation with a collaboration with Snakehed. What was the motivation behind this rebrand?
J: I guess, like, you know, even though we'd done Cycle of Suffering which was sort of like the comeback record, we didn't get to tour it because it came out like a week or two before we went into full lockdown and shutdown mode in the UK, and we never toured it. So it was kind of like a bit of a false start again or a restart. And with A Sign of Things to Come in all honesty, the band's manager, who’s been with us since 2010, was just super, brutally honest with m, he was just like, “You guys need to do a better record. It can't just be like a good Sylosis record. It needs to be like a classic album.” It needs to be memorable and every song needs to be, you know, how we say like a ‘single’ and still in like the metal world, that's a single. It doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be on the radio, just a song that's going to be an anthem. Like if you look at People = Shit by Slipknot, even though it wasn't released as a single, it's a big song. And that's what I mean. We wanted every song to be that important. It was the first time we really approached the record, like what would a classic album look like for solos? How can we make the hooks more memorable, even if it's like the heaviest stuff we've done? How can we make it anthemic or like a classic metal record? So yeah, I'm super hard on us for that. So yeah, I guess we just felt like we needed to revamp things a bit with the logo and stuff as well. Never really liked the old one to be honest. I just did it one day when I was like 20 or something. I can't remember.
DS: Yeah, cool. And it's actually a really good analogy used with "People = Shit" considering it wasn't a single, but it's got that single frame of mind to it.
J: Yeah.
DS: Looking back on your career, what do you consider to be your proudest achievement so far? And why is it being direct support to Metallica? *laughs* I'm just joking. That's my dream.
*laughs* Yeah, I mean, obviously that's a huge deal playing with them, playing on that stage. Crazy. Got to briefly hang out with them. Yeah, so that's definitely up there. But I do feel like A Sign of Things to Come, just the album as a whole, the amount of work and time and effort that went into that one is a highlight. And just anything we're doing from this point on, from that point on, because aside from some things we just talked about, I put the most effort into my vocals and being a vocalist and expressing myself more. And ultimately, I've become a much better frontman specifically in these last few years. So playing live is way more fun and satisfying now. And the new songs were written with a live environment in mind a lot more than any of our old stuff. So yeah, although we've done those cool stuff in the past, like everything we do now just feels so much more important, I guess.
DS: Definitely. And your vocals have really elevated as well, especially on A Sign of Things to Come as well. So that's awesome to hear.
J: Thank you.
DS: Since your last time in Australia, you've released three albums. Can we expect any songs of Dormant Heart in the setlist for your upcoming Australian tour? I'm a big fan of that album.
J: Oooh, I'll have to think about how long our set is going to be. Yeah, potentially. It’s probably about time we did that. We'll try and, yeah, we usually like to make sure every album is covered in the live set somehow.
DS: Yeah, cool. And lastly, are there any final words you'd like to say to your Australian fans?
J: Yeah, just apologies for taking so long to get back. It's been a long time and thanks to anyone that's stuck with us. And hopefully there's a lot of new fans out there as well that will be seeing us for the first time.
DS: Hell yeah. Well, we're excited to see you in Australia. So we'll see you next year.
J: Cool, thank you!
SYLOSIS and ANGELMAKER February 2025 Australian Tour Dates:
Tuesday 11th February PERTH, Magnet House
Wednesday 12th February ADELAIDE, Lion Arts
Friday 14th February MELBOURNE, Max Watts
Saturday 15th February SYDNEY, Manning Bar
Sunday 16th February BRISBANE, The Triffid
TICKETS:
GENERAL PUBLIC ON SALE: Tuesday August 6th - 9:00am (Local)