Album Review: Dorylus – Without Sin (Self Released)
Dorylus are a hard hitting four-piece metal band from Hertfordshire who play a mixture of Melodic Thrash and Death Metal. Since their inception in January 2015, Dorylus released the EP ‘The Rapture’ in December of the same year and quickly obtained a strong following in many areas of the UK.
In 2016, Dorylus played the Grand Final of Metal 2 The Masses London and by 2017 they had completed two tours, one being alongside Swedish Death Metal band Creeping Flesh as well as sharing the stage with acts such as Sumer, Krysthla and King Leviathan.
With influences ranging from classic bands like Iron Maiden and Slayer to modern acts such as Lamb Of God and Amon Amarth, Dorylus promise to deliver the perfect blend of face melting, bone crushing heavy metal!
They will now release their debut album titled ‘Without Sin’ on June 7th 2019.
Dorylus have commented:
“It has taken us 2 years to write ‘Without Sin’ and over a year to record it. The album is entirely self-produced! The drums were recorded in September 2017 and the guitars were due to be recorded in April 2018 but Joe became homeless just before this and he spent the majority of the rest of the year sleeping on sofas and coming to record with the rest of the band when he could.
Recording of ‘Without Sin’ started in The Practice Roomz in Stevenage to record the drums and eventually we moved on to Bassist Edd’s house to track all the DI tracks for the guitar and bass. Vocals were recorded by Joe in his flat.
It’s been a long road and a lot of hard work, but we now have an album we are extremely proud of.”
To say this has been a long time coming is an understatement but here we are. Dorylus unleash their debut full length album and the question is, was it worth the wait?
We begin with Under My Flesh, the UK four-piece immediately setting the stage for an album that promises to be unforgiving. The fierce guitar/drum combo works wonders on the mind, a blazing hot slice of speeding heavy metal. It’s slows down briefly to allow the vocals to control the pace before everything erupts in thrilling style. It’s a belter of an opener and a sure-fire way to win over new listeners.
Such a strong leader needs a strong follower and we get that in the more thrash-oriented Bite the Bullet, the powerful guitars and machine-gun fire of the drums will drive most wild. At nearly 7 minutes long, it’s far from your straight-forward thrash metal track. Instead leading us blindly along wondering what new madness might assault our minds.
Lesser Evil and First Stone keep a fast and fiery tempo at the forefront, the riffs proving to be the real strength in both tracks. Well those and the constantly pounding drum beat. Seriously that is an area Dorylus are quite untouchable.
Witch Hunter is the perfect encapsulation of just how heavy and ferocious Dorylus can be all while still filling their music will an incredible level of intricate detail. It’s an absolutely blazing ball of fury that has can be put up there as one of the band’s finest tracks.
How do you follow that? Well, if you’re Dorylus you keep it short and sweet but packed full of rage and heaviness, spitting malice and anger. Even when it seems like Mirrors is going to be a filler track, they still surprise.
The longer Without Sin goes on the feeling begins to steal over you that you’re listening to one of the best metal albums of the year. It seems impossible that there is going to be anything from the final four tracks to derail that either.
Serpents certainly doesn’t with its push into the more extreme side of the vocals (what an absolute beast of a vocalist) and while Upon the Horizon initially flails about, it quickly rights itself for another incredible showing from the drums amongst others.
With the end in sight, Sunrise sends out the big guns in the form of a guitar attack that will leave everyone bloodied and bruised. Not enough has been said about the absolute speed Dorylus play their guitars but rest assured it’s like their fingers are possessed.
After nine incredible brutal, savage, face melting, muscle seizing no one could blame Dorylus for taking their foot off the gas for the finale of Decency Derailed. It certainly seems as though that’s the case as soft acoustic strumming is what accompanies us at first before we get an eruption that feels so damn epic. The guitar rhythm is on another level here and backed up by the consistently great drumming/vocals what we have here is a simply phenomenal ending to a simply phenomenal album.
Ignore this release at your peril.
Dorylus – Without Sin Full Track Listing:
1. Under My Flesh
2. Bite the Bullet
3. Lesser Evil
4. First Stone
5. Witch Hunter
6. Mirrors
7. Serpents
8. Upon the Horizon
9. Sunrise
10. Decency Derailed
You can order the album now at Big Cartel. Find out more about Dorylus on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Dorylus - Without Sin (Self Released)
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The Final Score - 9.5/10
9.5/10