REVIEW: Silo - Haze

Hailing from the Isle of Man, SILO emerged in a landscape where life moves slowly and creative opportunity doesn’t exactly knock. With no established scenes or circuits to plug into, the band was moulded by the island’s stillness and separation. Rather than looking outward, they channelled that isolation into their work, forging a sound that’s equal parts abrasive, melodic, and deeply human.  The band came together in the post‑Covid lull, when five long‑time friends, - Kriss Maguire (vocals), Lar Crookall and Chris Barber‑Shaw (guitars), Dario Leonetti (bass), and Darren Shields (drums), started writing music as a way to reconnect and create. 

Haze, the band's debut album, was recorded in Southampton with producer Kel Pinchin, aiming to release independently. However, after sending the material around, this led to an unexpected email from Easy Life Records, who signed them immediately. The album is a portrait of collapse, survival, and the uneasy calm that follows. Written collectively in the room rather than pieced together in isolation, it captures moments in real time — instinct over polish, emotion over precision. Across thirteen tracks, Haze moves through addiction, disillusionment, therapy, love, loss, and identity, offering no neat resolutions, only unfiltered truth. 

Opening track Static Screen, at a little over 1 minute long, comes screaming into the listeners face, introducing what is to come with blunt, uncompromising riffs. Spin follows; heavy guitars, even heavier drums and accompanied by a heady mix of clean vocals and screamed tones. Next track Crawl in a Bottle was released as the first single from Haze back in January 2026 and channels isolation, agitation, and a splintered sense of self into a volatile collision of post‑hardcore pressure and grunge‑laden weight. The story it tells is from the viewpoint of someone stepping into therapy for the first time, which reads like a raw, self‑aware, and unfiltered monologue, with lyrics like “Where I've stayed isn't a true home / Just let me wander away from this place” hitting just right. Maguire delivers sweeping choruses which offer brief moments of reflection without softening the blow. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltiib-EteeQ

Follow up single Ill Intent lands as a defiant statement built on self‑belief, clarity, and resistance. Blending post‑hardcore urgency with modern alternative heft, the track pushes back against manipulation and false narratives, its lyrics rooted in freedom, resilience, and inner strength, with Maguire lamenting “Seems you always have a need to deceive, mislead / Forget your broken dreams”. Split My Mind has a softer vocal delivery than the tracks preceding but still delivers the aggressive riffs post-hardcore is best known for. 

Forget It was released as the third and final single before the album release. It is an uncompromising response to emotional manipulation; a release and a boundary drawn in the same breath. Driven by precision‑tight rhythms and a sharp, cutting vocal delivery, the track captures the exact moment when simmering frustration crystallises into resolve. Its aggression is deliberate, channelling internal turmoil into something outward‑facing and unshakeable. What’s Left of Me has verses that have an almost nu-metal, POD like vibe, before moving back into the heavier, shouted lyrics for the choruses, giving a DEFTONES like feel to the track. Low Sun, coming in as the longest track on the album, returns to the stylings of the preceding track; this is the strongest song on Haze and needs to be played loudly, and on repeat, in our opinion. The track lands perfectly despite it differing from the surrounding songs.

With Jaw Wire, Maguire returns to the heavier vocals heard in earlier tracks on the album, but they are still accompanied by guitars and bass from Crookall, Barber‑Shaw and Leonetti that come in heavy, and with purpose, with Shields smashing the drums with urgency and precision in the background. This is bound to be a track where the crowd will rise up, into the pits, and end in a sweaty heap on the floor. Bai Lan has a slight return to the softer vocals to start, but still comes in heavy; there is no compromise when it comes to the volume of all of the elements that make up this track. With a mid centre spoken monologue, the title referencing the concept of “letting things rot,” aligning with themes of disillusionment and autonomy, is honoured perfectly. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYrVVL43hHI

One of the shorter tracks on Haze is Imposter; despite the length, it still delivers one of the album’s most emotionally direct moments, tapping into those tortuous moments of self doubt and  impostor syndrome. Shields drums take a starring role in this track, with the guitars and bass delivering a reverb that would be more familiar in a shoegaze track, but fit right at home where they are. Lucid is a track that further delivers the album's theme of that central tension between self‑awareness and confusion, with vocals that hit heavy and again, there is no compromise with the backing instruments. Closing track Times Change delivers the biggest surprise on Haze; after a loud, aggressive, energetic run of twelve songs, listeners are treated to a stripped back song, with acoustic guitar and vocals. The track offers a moment of calm reflection, a quiet exit, one which isn’t necessarily needed but is welcomed. 

SILO step out of isolation with purpose, uninterested in scenes or fleeting movements. Haze feels like a band pushing outward from silence, sharpening their edges instead of sanding them down, searching for truth in the chaos. It’s an instinct driven record — raw, intense and committed to honesty over ornament. You can catch them at 2000 Trees Festival later this year.

Score: 8/10

Haze will be released on 1st May 2026 via Easy Life Records.

Words: Lou Viner-Flood

Photos: Silo