AND THE NEW SYLOSIS GUITARIST IS…

… Brandon Ellis. You might recognize the 18-year old (!) Ellis’s name from his run as a touring guitarist with Arsis on their most recent Jim Malone-less tour, or perhaps from his brief stint with North Carolina-based MS-faves Vanisher. Filling in for Jim Fucking Malone in Arsis is pretty dern impressive on its own, but learning a band’s entire live set — let alone a band as technical and precise as Sylosis — in TWO DAYS, then going out on tour with them to open for As I Lay Dying in 1,000+ capacity venues? Mind boggling. This kid’s got my respect.

But the news of Brandon Ellis replacing Alex Bailey — who broke his wrist mere days into Sylosis’ U.S. tour — isn’t new in and of itself, as Ellis started playing with the band late last week and several other sites picked up the news around that time. Mainly I just wanted a reason to post this new live music video of Sylosis playing “A Serpent’s Tongue,” ’cause Sylosis are fan-fucking-tastic and you really ought to pay them attention. I named their 2011 release Edge of the Earth as one of my Top 15 of 2011, so use this as an excuse to catch up on what you missed.

-VN

[via No Clean Singing]