Necrotica Back in 2011, Born of Osiris performed an admirable feat: they brought a heightened sense of futurism and adventure to a then-stagnant genre. The Discovery was an incredibly welcome breath of fresh air that, unfortunately, will always cast a shadow over the band’s subsequent work because of its ambition. Still, they certainly keep trying and trying to recapture the spark that The Discovery gave off and Tomorrow We Die Alive regrettably lost. After all, the concept of taking deathcore into more experimental and adventurous avenues is something that I’ll always be behind. By all means, let’s take the genre somewhere that forces it outside of its comfort zone! And besides, many of these substantially “djentier” deathcore and modern metalcore bands have usually been the ones who continue to push the boundaries, stemming from artists such as After the Burial and Veil of Maya. Well, luckily, Born of Osiris’ new effort The Simulation sees them back in action with their best album since The Discovery. Granted, there’s really no more death metal in there. For that matter, many of the songs ride a low groove that sees them moving even further into djent territory than before. So why does The Simulation work so well?

Because it has a runtime of only 25 minutes, which means it has less time to pack in all of its exciting riffs and experimentations before quickly getting the fuck out. As such, you’re greeted by enough twists and turns to make your head spin. There are a few quiet moments of atmosphere throughout, such as the frantic little symphonic intro of “Disconnectome” or the entirely of interlude “Recursion,” but for the most part, these moments of space and contemplation are constantly butting heads with the meaty riffs underneath. By far, the best section to feature this conflict comes from the outro of “Silence of the Echo,” whose melodic solo lends the heavy chugs and power chords with a beautifully spacy counterpoint. It actually reminds me of The Faceless’ Planetary Duality days, and that’s not the only moment that made me think of that album. Every time “Disconnectome” breaks into a melodic solo or goes through a hyper-fast blastbeat section, it really does sound reminiscent of the sci-fi tech-death from that era of The Faceless.

Thankfully, Born of Osiris don’t forget their roots on The Simulation, paying plenty of homage to what made them a household name in deathcore while still continuing to experiment with their formula. If I had to pick out the best change this time around, it’s that the guitar leads or more fluid than ever. “Analogs in a Cell,” “Silence the Echo,” “Disconnectome,” and “Cycles of Tragedy” are all imbued with fantastic soloing that both technically impresses and constantly shifts between neo-classical and jazz fusion stylings. Also, the variety in the drumming is really impressive from time to time; “Disconnectome” in particular (yes, I know I’m bringing up this song a lot) features a ridiculous amount of tempo shifts, and they’re all surprisingly tasteful and natural despite how abrupt they are. The Simulation isn’t a perfect album - the slower tempos can become pretty one-note, and the short runtime obviously means some people will want a bit more meat - but it’s definitely the most solid album the band have put out since their initial heyday. It’s a really fun little adventure that - much like Reign in Blood - is very easy to replay again and again because of its lean length and addictive riffing.

siLLy puPPy The Chicago based deathcore band BORN OF OSIRIS had quite the difficult time choosing a name as in a mere short period from 2003-07 they chose and rejected the names Diminished, Your Heart Engraved and Rosecrance before finally settling on the Egyptian deity who was the Egyptian god of the afterlife. During that time they produced a few demos under all those names but wouldn’t release their debut studio EP - THE NEW REIGN until 2007 as BORN OF OSIRIS. Although the band started out more as a metalcore outfit they began adding more death metal elements such as the abrasive growled vocals as well as the expected rhythmic breakdowns more suited to the death metal scene however all those core elements are retained. This band somehow latched onto the progressive world as it seems to pop up as such although the progressive touches take a back seat to the brutal metal aspects in the forefront.

BORN OF OSIRIS deliver a typical death metal meets metal ore = deathcore sound with the expected death metal riffs and blast beats while retaining all those core breakdowns with all the hardcore punk infused energy and brutality, however what sets this band apart from the rest of the pack is that it utilizes atmospheric keyboards to create a backdrop of ambience and also throws in a few unorthodox sound effects on the side. Ronnie Canizaro’s vocals are nothing out of the ordinary nor are the staccato riffs of Lee McKinney however Matthew Pantelis dishes out some melodic lead guitar parts along with squeals and little tricks and trinkets to add a sprinkling of more class metal to the mix including a few solos here and there.

The percussion seems to be the weakest part as i’m not hearing the OMG drum abuse i would expect for a deathcore band, or at least not to the extend that i would prefer. Yeah, there are blast beats now and again but generally the percussive parts are fairly by the books and not overly exciting. Overall the tracks are all fairly similar with only the keyboards and lead guitar differentiating them in any significant ways. Deathcore is certainly not my favorite subgenre in the metal universe and BORN OF OSIRIS doesn’t dish out a whole lot of originality to make me change my mind on that one. This debut is a nicely delivered near 22 minute display of metal energy with some atmospheric elements thrown in but in the end it’s all fairly predictable and doesn’t even come close to blowing me away.

siLLy puPPy After their short EP debut studio release “The New Reign” which appeared in 2007, BORN OF OSIRIS roughly released a new album every two years but somewhere along the way the band decided that they just weren’t happy with their debut EP and it desperately needed to be re-recorded and repackaged, retitled and released once again. Come ten years later and the newly named THE ETERNAL REIGN accomplishes this goal by taking all eight tracks back to the studio and polishing them into deathcore perfection with even a bonus track in the form of “Glorious Day” to finish it off with bringing the new playing time to a whopping 23 minutes and 50 seconds.

Well, what can someone exactly say about a brutal deathcore band trying to re-record and album. How about…. REALLY? Ok, first of all, i’m rarely a fan of any band re-recording an album because of nitpicky imperfections no matter how legit they may be due to the fact that for every inch of error is erased, so too is a pound of passion that made the album stand out in the first place. However in the case of BORN OF OSIRIS who utilize a brutal deathened core sound designed to bang your head and make your ears bleed with slight touches of sugary atmospheric keyboards to make the bitter just a little sweet, i have to shake my head and ask the obvious question: WHY BOTHER?

To the casual listener this won’t sound a bit different as all the growly screams, all the distorted guitar riffs, solos, drum blasts and metal accoutrements are pretty much following down the same path. Where this second rendition of the EP does differ is in the “extras” department namely in the ambience and keyboard effects that add new riffs here and there and stand out as more prominent features of the band sprinkled across the album but nothing added makes this a substantially better album where it counts, namely in the songwriting department where all the tracks sound just as average as they did the first time around. I have to admit that the percussion has improved over the original.

Perhaps it would’ve been a better idea to focus on new music instead. The only redeeming aspect of this album is that there is one new track titled “Glorious Day” which is the best track on the EP which only serves the purpose of showing how far the band has come in its technical prowess and ability to make tracks more interesting. Hmmm, maybe that’s the point? I dunno but this track shows a more adept ability of blending all the core elements with more classic metal sounds, more sophisticated atmospheric embellishments and even the drum parts are more diverse than elsewhere. Unfortunately it lasts a mere two and a half minutes so hardly worth tracking this down for a mere bonus track which is good but not outstanding. Nah, this is mostly a waste of time.

FMOTP I am grateful to post the first review of THE ETERNAL REIGN. If you're a fan of Born Of Osiris, as I definitely am, I think THE ETERNAL REIGN is a nonessential disc. It's great music, but the original THE NEW REIGN was already great music. Some may criticize the original's sound quality. I assume that THE ETERNAL REIGN is a re-recording, not just a remastering. I don't care much about sound quality as long as you can hear it, and I think the original sounded just fine. If you are just starting to familiarize yourself with the band, THE ETERNAL REIGN is a very good place to start. If you already think Born of Osiris is an amazing metal band regardless of subgenre, the original album works just as well.

J-Man Though deathcore is admittedly not one of my favorite genres, American flag-bearers Born of Osiris have been one of my favorite discoveries this year. Their progressive and technical take on this now-tired mix of death metal and metalcore is refreshing, and their gifted capabilities as songwriters and musicians makes them even more noteworthy in my book. Looking back on The New Reign (their first EP under the band name Born of Osiris) from today's lenses shows that they didn't start out as an eye-opening act, however - while the band's distinct sound is somewhat in place, it's much more immature and disjointed than any of their future efforts. The New Reign is a fairly mediocre effort that relies far too heavily on conventional deathcore techniques for my liking, and when it does deviate from this well-trodden formula, the results are hit and miss.

The music you'll find on The New Reign is best described as deathcore with quite a few technical and melodic twists. There are lots of technical nuances in the compositions, especially in the guitar department, and the synthesizer flavorings give Born of Osiris a few unique assets aside from your standard 'chug-chug-breakdown' deathcore album. While this is definitely a positive in my book, Born of Osiris was still far from perfecting their sound on this EP - the synthesizer tones sound cheap and fake, and they tend to awkwardly dance above the rest of the tech-metal madness with no rhyme or reason. To further add to this, the songs themselves often jump from one section to another without any warning; in short, this is an extremely incoherent and jagged release from a compositional standpoint. The musicianship is undoubtedly excellent, with the lightning-fast guitar leads and complex drum patterns often leaving me in amazement, but the songs are just so disjointed that it's difficult to get too excited about The New Reign.

It's also worth noting that the production is not quite up to par either, with the dry and rather muddy sound often detracting from my overall enjoyment. All in all, The New Reign is not an EP I enjoy very much, but there are still plenty of ambitious ideas throughout its duration to save it from being considered a poor effort. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone except those who can't get enough of Born of Osiris, so I guess 2.5 is a pretty fair score. Time would prove that these lads would improve immensely over this disjointed debut within the next few years.