Sylosis, Angelmaker, Lune @ Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide 12/2/2025
To many people, enclosed in a room during temperatures reaching forty three degrees and listening to heavy metal would be considered hell. However, to the damned souls of hades who arrive at the Sylosis show in Adelaide, it’s consider an escape from the oppressive heat.
Now that the insanely hot temperature has been mentioned let’s not go there again. Why? Well, because Sylosis made a mockery of how hot it is with their own combustible show, raising that temperature dial up even further.
Before they appear for their first Adelaide show since another extremely hot show at 2013 at Soundwave, we have Lune.
The first aspect of their show that stands out is how loud they are. The tonality of that sound, that power rips through your bones and rattles you. Ghost has the crowd bouncing and to be fair, no one is outside having a smoke when they are on, the ultimate Adelaide compliment to a band this ferocious and precise.
Canadians Angelmaker are storytellers through craft, visuals and sonics. Their songs take you on a metal journey as they switch tempos, styles and depths of hell.
Hollow Heart rips a new one early doors and having seven people on stage, including two vocalists, means no one is able to take a breath from the assault this gang of menace provides.
A Dark Omen swings like a metal jazz band and by the time they finish, the band are given the respect of a chant for an encore. Which for a support band is huge!
However, this night is Sylosis night. Their last album A Sign Of Things to Come was a departure of straight-ahead metal into epic sing along, head banging chaos inducing pit work.
The boys don’t mess about either, held together by Bleed From Within’s time keeper Ali Richardson, that trust allows Josh Middleton to let fly. Be it singer, rabble rouser, virtuoso, or riff meister, Middleton lands every note, every riff like a metal legend.
Songs like Empty Prophets, I Sever and the pit enticing Teras show the growth of Middleton from guitar whiz to bona fide frontman.
Walls of death are common, circle pits frequent and fist pumping second nature with each crushing riff unleashed by the band.
The drum battery and grooves make the band metal in that true sense, Altered States Of Consciousness while an oldie, flexing it muscles within the set list heavy of new tracks like the Sad But True stomp of Descent.
The show finishes with Deadwood and news that Middleton has had some throat problems recently however judging by the firecracker of a performance, the spot fires of pits in the venue and the hammer crashing beat of the final song, Sylosis destroyed Adelaide and left us in their wake.
Live Review By Iain McCallum