When Sylosis mainman Josh Middleton announced the Reading turbo-thrashers’ 2016 hiatus – replacing late Architects guitarist Tom Searle – fans understandably assumed that was that. Storming back after four years’ silence, however, furious fifth album Cycle Of Suffering finds them charged with the attitude and energy of a band determined to make up for lost time. If 2015’s Dormant Heart was a full-blooded fulfilment of Josh’s original vision for the band, Cycle Of Suffering feels like a boundary-busting rebirth. Fuelled by indignation at humanity’s never-ending loop of self-destruction, there’s a box-fresh, bleeding-edge intensity to the smashing likes of I Sever and Shield. As the picture broadens across the smouldering Calcified, the acoustic-led insidiousness of Arms Like A Noo...
