Review Summary: With all the imitation bands in the metal scene, its nice to see a band that tries something a bit different.
With the whole metal and hardcore scene that's been growing as of late, generating copycat bands that just don't seem to do anything different, its nice to see a band try and do something a little out of the ordinary. Now while Born of Osiris certainly doesn't break new ground it definitely is a breath of fresh air in the scene. Being that this is their first take in the genre, I wouldn't say its to bad of an album at all. The main attraction for me behind the heavily distorted guitars, intense blast beats from the drums and the almost non existent bass is the keyboard. While it doesnt make an appearance in every song it seems to bring out a more creative side of the band that most bands coming out nowadays lack.
Born of Osiris's problem is simply that they their songs are to short. The eight songs present on the album range from only two minutes to about three and a half. Here's another problem that the band faces, because each track is short it tries to cram a 7 minute song into three minutes by taking pieces of different styles of metal and putting it into a mish-mosh that doesn't even last four minutes long. While its clear that this band was created to be different, the track length problems keep it from being so.
The opener track Rosecrance opens up and immediately hits you with its heaviness. The screams accompanied by dropped guitars and crushing drums definitely get your attention. After all hell has broke loose, the keyboard comes in, changing the tone of the song which shows how the band is ever yearning to be progressive. Like I said before, the main attraction seems to be the keyboard and its easy to see why. Tracks like Open Arms to Damnation and Abstract Art provide catchy and strange sounding keyboard sounds that certainly will catch the listeners interest. One of my favorite moments coming from the keyboard is the outro of The Takeover that sounds like a classically influenced sound. One aspect that may turn the listener off is the exclusion of clean vocals. While their is not one second of clean vocals on this album the screams and growls on the album are decent and while it brings nothing new to the table, it stands its ground.
Born of Osiris does a good job of catching your attention with its odd song patterns and wacky keyboard parts but short track length, typical drum beats, vocals and guitar riffs seem to keep this album from its full potential. When all is said and done, this is definitely a good first outing for a band coming out a music scene that is becoming old and tired.
