ALBUM REVIEW: The Simulation – Born Of Osiris

Fans of BORN OF OSIRIS have had to be very patient in recent times. It has been a staggering four years since the band released their last album with original material entitled Soul Sphere in 2015 to generally positive reviews. Since that time the band have remastered and re-released their debut EP, The New Reign, under the title of The Eternal Reign and although this was a polished and well produced dose of nostalgia, it didn’t quite quench the thirst of the BORN OF OSIRIS crew’s loyal following.

Fast forward to 2019 and the band have whipped up a brand new full length album named The Simulation which is the first release to not feature their long term bassist David De Rocha since the aforementioned EP in 2007. The big question here is whether or not the recent revisit of their previous classic will influence the sound of the new release and if so will it be a progression on the previous sound or will it simply be re-treading the same path?

Album opener and one of the tracks released previously The Accursed begins exactly as you would imagine with a heavy electronic presence and impressive rhythmic sections coupled with the always powerful harsh vocal delivery of Ronnie Canizaro ensuring that all of the boxes are ticked for the BORN OF OSIRIS faithful. It is apparent very early on how much the band have grown as song writers with the effective use of melody and hooks being packaged in such a way that it never ventures in to the sickly-sweet choruses and pop sensibilities that are often affiliated with metalcore.

The following track Disconnetome turns up the heavy in a big way. As soon as track kicks in, the drumming machine that is Cameron Losch is unleashed and proves exactly why he is widely considered one of the finest metal drummers in the game with his expert use of blast beats and seemingly unending supply of impressive, innovative fills. The guitar riffs from Lee McKinney are well crafted with plenty of low end, tremolo parts as well as virtuoso leads that pair up well with the keys to add melody to the track. Once again the vocals are crushingly powerful with Canizaro trading off with keyboardist Joe Buras to give that extra layer of brutality to proceedings. However, the finest example on the The Simulation of the trading-off style of vocals is in Under The Gun with the band embracing a completely different approach to melody and reaping the benefits with one of their most memorable songs to date with arguably the best hook that they have penned.

In the latter stages of the album is the second song that preceded the release of the album: Silence The Echo. The band do what they do best here and mould together a number of different polyrhythms and low-tuned mechanical sounding riffs in a way not too dissimilar from the progressive metal overlords MESHUGGAH. Any fans of BORN OF OSIRIS who were concerned with the departure of De Rocha will have their worries fully put to rest as the new bassist Nick Rossi has picked up the baton here and has fit in to the role seamlessly with the rhythm section of the band being as air tight as ever. There is another impressive guitar solo on display from McKinney with it showcasing a lot more feel than you tend to see with most of the music within the same sub-genre.

BORN OF OSIRIS are a band that have struggled at times to set themselves apart from the rest of the progressive metal pack over the years with their discography appearing to be a little hit and miss. The Simulation is an album that shows some fantastic growth in the quality of song writing and the band appear to have not lost any momentum after the departure of De Rocha. The production, however fails the album a little bit and shows one of the pitfalls to the BORN OS OSIRIS sound that has followed them since their inception and that is the amount of compression and overproducing that is involved, especially when it comes to the guitars when they are recorded. The notes are very abrupt and sound as though they have been cut and squeezed to such an extent that they sound a little too clean and robotic, stripping back a degree of the intensity.

So to answer the original question: Yes. BORN OF OSIRIS have shown some real progression here with The Simulation and it is a solid effort and it will sit well in their back catalogue. However, The Simulation is not an album that has the immediate impact that will be ripping up trees and changing people’s lives.

Rating: 7/10

The Simulation is out now via Sumerian Records. 

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