Interview
Interview
Stage Times: Sylosis
From school assemblies to the main stages of Europe’s biggest festivals, Sylosis frontman Josh Middleton reflects on two decades of dealing out blistering riffs
Formed by a group of metal-loving teens back in 2000, Sylosis have spent the last quarter of a century leading the charge for UK heavy music.
Emerging onto the Reading scene as kids fascinated by the Bay Area thrash movement, over the years the quartet’s sound has evolved into something far mightier. Progressive, melodic, and boundary-pushing, across six studio albums they’ve become a formidable force, going from pestering their classmates in school halls to conquering some of the world’s biggest metal festivals.
When we ask Josh Middleton if he’s surprised that Sylosis has made it to their 25th year though, his answer is delightfully honest.
“No, I’m not,” he shrugs. “Not in an arrogant way, but I would do it no matter how many people cared. I always expected to be doing this for a long time because I love it. The fact that things are getting bigger right now is great though. For a while, the band was held back by me having hang-ups and getting in the way of our success. I’d worry about what type of band we were seen as, but now I just don’t care. The older you get, the more you just want to do whatever makes you happy. Now, we just want to write the best music we can.”
Following a three-year hiatus whilst Middleton joined the ranks of fellow UK metal titans Architects, Sylosis are gearing up for their biggest headline tour to date. In early 2026, they’ll embark on a 31-date run across the UK and Europe, including huge shows at London’s O2 Kentish Town Forum and Manchester’s O2 Ritz – all alongside new album The New Flesh, out 20 February.
“We’re going to invest in making this our best show ever,” Middleton smiles. “The way we work as a band is that we reinvest everything. We don’t take any money from Sylosis, it all just gets spent on making the live show even better.”
As they prepare to unleash their next chapter in style, Middleton looks back on the performances that shaped Sylosis – from school assemblies to Sonisphere’s main stage, and everything in between.
The gig that made you want to play music
“I just had an underwhelming image pop into my head. My sister is two years older than me, and when she started secondary school, we had a next-door neighbour who was in her year. He did a guitar performance, just him on his own, or maybe him and a friend. I think it was a song they wrote themselves. My memory at the time was like, ‘That’s amazing. I want to do that’.
“After that, I quickly got into my own music. I had a friend in primary school who gave me a cassette tape with Nevermind on it. When he handed it to me, he told me to check out his brother’s band. I spent a good year thinking Nirvana was my friend’s brother’s band. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, they’re pretty good… They should be famous’.
“I discovered heavy music and metal on my own though. I was always the guy trying to get everyone else in my school into my sort of music. By the time I got to secondary school age, all the kids were into Spice Girls or football. No one was into any alternative culture or skateboarding, so I was trying to push it on everyone else. I specifically remember going to Reading Festival in 1999, too. I went on the Sunday and saw The Offspring, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Lit. I went to quite a lot of gigs from a young age, and a lot of Reading Festivals!”
The first gig you played as a band
“We formed in 2000, but we were just kids in school. We chose the name Sylosis because of bands like Sepultura, Slipknot, and Slayer… We just thought the letter S was cool. It’s a made-up word. Back then, it was me and our first drummer, who lived down my street. We went to school together, and we played during a school assembly. It was just covers, ‘Wait And Bleed’ by Slipknot and I think ‘Hot Dog In A Hallway’ by NOFX. We were only 12 years old, but after that we had local gigs every now and then. Our parents would have to drive us there because we’d be playing bars that we weren’t allowed to be in. The first proper gig outside of school was a battle of the bands that we won, which was cool because we won a day in a recording studio. We made a four-song demo there that helped us get traction locally.”
Playing ‘Wait And Bleed’ in a school assembly is a bold move…
“I wish it was filmed, because it would have been awful but iconic.”
The smallest
“We’ve had smaller shows in more recent years than some of our first ones. Sometimes you’ll be on a really big tour, but there are so many bands with so much gear that you have no space to move, which makes the room feel tiny. A classic venue that comes to mind though is The Cavern in Exeter. There, you haven’t got any space to move on stage. We’ve also done so many gigs, especially when we started, where there was no one there. We did a headline tour in 2006/2007 with a band called Romeo Must Die and we played a Hull show to barely anyone. That day though, we got an email from Nuclear Blast to say that they were interested in working with us. Terrible show, but a great day.”
The biggest
“Sonisphere 2011 stands out, which was definitely our biggest at the time. The night before had The Big Four headlining, and we were the first band on the next day. Metallica had just been on that stage before us. There were tonnes of people there, which isn’t exactly a given for the first band on a festival main stage. We don’t always get a great crowd, but we have the evidence to prove we did that day! Since then, we’ve been lucky enough to do a lot of other big shows and festivals. On a personal level, supporting Metallica with Architects was big for me. I got to play on their weird donut stage, which is actually quite awkward if you’re the support band.”
The weirdest
“I’ve actually had loads of dreams recently where I’ve been late to stage or not had my stuff, which has really been messing with my mind. In real life though, there have been a few shows where there’s just a weird vibe. I remember one on the first US tour we did. We did a short headline tour on the way to meet the rest of the tour party, which was headlined by As I Lay Dying. We headlined the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, which was where Dimebag Darrell was shot. It just felt weird, especially as he was one of my favourite guitarists as a kid.”
The worst
“I got the flu on one of the last US tours we did, which was just incredibly embarrassing. My voice was shot, and you can’t perform how you want to when you’re ill. We didn’t cancel any shows, but I was at my worse for the New York show. Obviously, that’s one of the big ones, and it was so embarrassing playing that show and barely being able to make a noise. We’re very fortunate that we’ve never been booed or heckled, so as it stands the worst-case scenario for us is when you’re sick or something breaks.”
The best
“Some of my favourites actually happened this summer. We played Copenhell, Graspop, and Download Festival, and they were all incredible. Download Festival is a hometown show for us as far as festivals go, so that one is always special. At the other two European festivals we played we also had pyro for the first time in Sylosis’ history. It’s always exciting when you’ve got loads of fire onstage!”
There’s something about European metal fans. They have such a deep love for the genre and so much passion for it…
“Oh, for sure. Our Graspop set was during an insane heat wave, and we were playing in a tent. You might think that it was a shelter from the sun, but the heat was unbearable. I thought I was in a sauna, and I was worried I might pass out before going on stage. It was worse being in there than it was being outside, so the fact that all those people showed up for our set proves how dedicated they are.”
Sylosis play London and Manchester in February. Find tickets here
Photo credit: Ollie Millington / Getty
