EP Review: SYL – afmagt
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
As the follow up to their debut album, alt godt from 2022, Copenhagen hardcore punks, SYL, have wasted no time in hitting the studio once more for six-track, barely thirteen-minute EP, afmagt (Danish for powerlessness, so I’m told).
There is a distinctly three-way split going on here, with the initial punk attitude being most prominent on the Rot Away featuring, igen, its bass pushed to the fore. The faster tempo of this one roots it squarely in the punk genre, though the slashing guitars of Emil Adalsteinsson and Gustav S. Brønnum draw one’s mind in a more metal direction.
Opener, dit ord, mixes its punk beat with some two-stepping hardcore and as angry a vocal as Benjamin C. W. Hviid musters on this one, and that’s despite the death growls and post metal bridge of stor dreng.
As afmagt enters its second half it takes on a much more metallic perspective. Rose, featuring Beautiful Burning World’s Thomas Burø, rocks up with just the perfect balance of accessibility and aggression, all packed into a catchy riff and hook-laden chorus. Hard on its heels are the excoriating wall of sound that is arvæv which, even though the acoustic interlude appears from nowhere, is still locked and loaded to destroy.
All styles and ideas come together for the politically charged kort strå, a whirling dervish of a track that is equal parts metal, punk and hardcore.
Despite their relative inexperience as a band, SYL have been sharing stages across Scandinavia with the likes of Honningbarna, Rot Away, Tvivler and EYES; giving a fine account of themselves too, if rumours are to be believed.
On the strength of afmagt’s short running time, I see no reason to doubt that statement, and look forward to a time when I can stand as witness to it myself.
