Hailing from the UK, SYLOSIS is back with their fourth Nuclear Blast album "Dormant Heart".  The album will be released on January 23, 2015, but Metal Temple had the privilege to review the album before its release date. It comes in with 12 tracks and is just under an hour of brutal and aggressive listening time.

The band was formed in 2000, when founding member Josh Middleton was just 15. In 2008, the quartet released their first full length through Nuclear Blast Records, "Conclusion Of An Age". The blended metal of SYLOSIS was an instant hit for European metal scene. Fast forwarding through the years, the band has shared the stage with the likes of LAMB OF GOD, KILLSWITCH ENGAGED, DEVIL DRIVING, and TRIVIUM. "Dormant Heart" is not peaceful; it is powerful and it unleashes anger towards everyday injustices and a society that sits ideally allowing these injustices to happen. According to Josh Middleton "The title refers to people going through life on autopilot and being one of the herd. How a lot of people simply accept the way things are just because it's 'tradition' as opposed to taking a good look at the world around you and thinking for yourself. Sometimes there are catalysts that happen and change our perspective or consciousness..."

"Where the Wolves Come to Die" starts the album. It's a slow intro that morphs into a methodical march. The album opens with a track that tells the tale of the lack of humans thinking for themselves. The musician ship here in incredible. It sets the tone for the rest of the album. It's extremely melodious, but the guttural vocals give the track a dark tone. The overall sound is heavy and sad, but that quickly changes in track two, "Victims and Pawns", to an aggressive pissed off-ness that progresses through the rest of the album. The vocals in track two are pretty intense and do love that there was tone alterations and even some scratchy singing. The guitar riffs are beyond perfect and the drums keep everything inline.

The title track slows the tone down a bit. The guitar intro is that of beauty, that change quickly into a darker and heavier track. The drums are much more blast beat in this track, but are a perfect addition, and never too overly done. The guitar solo is insane and it's the catalyst that allows for the abrupt slowing of the track towards the end.

The bass beauty, or track five, "Overthrown". I love the bass in this track, and if you're a bass lover, this is a track for you. There is tons of melody and there is the appearance of clean vocals.

I could talk about every single track on this album because the musicianship is just so good, the lyrical content is executed flawlessly, and the production is incredible. But to keep this review at a readable and attention keeping length I'll just say "Dormant Heart" has made my list for Best of 2015 albums.

Some honourable mentions for the album are: "Servitude", "Indoctrinated", "Harm", and "Quiescent". All of these tracks have something in them that make them unique and an interesting listen. "Quiescent" is the closing track and it is incredibly soft and completely different from the rest of the album. Welcome to acoustic SYLOSIS. It is a beautiful nine minute piece that serves as a calming aspect, but it's beautifully haunting, even the vocals are cryptic in nature. The track doesn't last as an acoustic piece, but it keeps the same tone and the same melody. This is an exceptional track that makes the flow from soft to hard seem effortless.

"Dormant Heart" is not dormant by any stretch of the imagination. It is hard, it is aggressive, and it is a truth.  The melody, the harmony, the impressiveness SYLOSIS has as a band; it is all here in "Dormant Heart". This is without a doubt one of the best of the year.<