Osiah: Traversing Through The Darkness
The DIY work ethic has been firmly instilled into the hearts and minds of the underground metal scene and one band that has always been unafraid to carve their own path is deathcore heavyweights OSIAH. Building their repertoire and reputation considerably with each passing release their 2019 album Kingdom Of Lies proved to be their most successful release yet. This release opened the door for some very exciting opportunities to present themselves, the biggest being their introduction to the monstrous roster of Unique Leader Records.
“We were one of the last bands to be signed to Unique Leader before Erik sadly passed away,” says guitarist Andy Mallaby. “We had the announcement and promotional material ready to go but we put everything on hold as a mark of respect to Erik.”
“For someone as influential as he was and the stuff he had done in the industry and the bands he had worked for, the fact that he believed in us was such a massive boost for us,” adds frontman Ricky Lee Roper. “It was such a shock to reality for us and did knock us back a bit. I’m glad we did it respectfully. We also can’t thank Jamie Graham enough for his help through the years too. We’ve worked with him for a long time through the Siege Of Amida days and he has been instrumental in OSIAH being where they are today. We wouldn’t have got the tour with CATTLE DECAPITATION if it wasn’t for being associated with Unique Leader so we’re very grateful!”
The various stages of lockdown encountered over the past couple of years have unfortunately been a thorn in the side of any touring aspirations musicians had in place but this also provided the opportunity for OSIAH to knuckle down and get working on their much anticipated follow-up to Kingdom Of Lies. “If you’re a fan of OSIAH or have heard us before then this is probably going to be the darkest thing we’ll ever release. The overall theme of the album is nothing like we’ve ever had before and in order to get to this stage you have to suffer a little bit, you know?” States Ricky.
“We wanted to go full pelt and leave it all out there,” adds Andy. “There is a lot more of a blackened sound in there. People keep asking me what they should expect and I tell them if you thought Kingdom Of Lies was intense then this is going to blow it completely out of the water. I feel that the deathcore genre is a bit all the same at the moment so we wanted to stand out and be different. We wanted this album to have clear riffing.”
“We really aimed to write things which were just outside of our comfort zone so I think that also pushed the sound in terms of making it different too and that makes for more interesting parts and more interesting riffs,” adds guitarist Chris Keepin. “We love riffs, whenever we listen to bands we are not impressed by how far down a band can tune. It’s all about the riffs! Me and Andy just bounced off each other. The writing was essentially done over WhatsApp. The intro of The Eye Of The Swarm was literally created from me sending Andy a voice note and the pattern of the riff.”
As well as their shift in style and mindset the band has evolved significantly since their last release. “We’ve got a new drummer, we’ve got two different songwriters so the whole infrastructure of the band has massively changed,” explains Ricky. “I don’t write guitar parts any more I just leave it to these boys and it’s that progression that we have developed through the years and since Kingdom Of Lies we’re barely the same band. It was quite weird as Noah joined us literally as we had finished Kingdom Of Lies and he was out on the road with us promoting that product but didn’t actually participate in the album. This time round he played quite a big part in it. We’ve really appreciated his input as he isn’t the kind of drummer to just play what we tell him to.”
The pandemic has posed a challenge to even the most strong willed of individuals and the members of OSIAH have been no different. Confronting their trauma head on and wearing their hearts on their sleeves to compose which would become their third full-length effort entitled Loss. “With previous material I was talking about past moments in my life and things I was proud to say I’d conquered and could stand there and appreciate that but with Loss it was talking about things I hadn’t conquered and things I was fighting at that very moment,” admits Ricky. “We got halfway through the album process and I was like ‘guys, we’re calling this one Loss‘ and everyone was completely on board with that. There was no other description I could’ve chosen that I related to as much as Loss. As far as lyrics go I try not to be fully open about everything. I want people to have the opportunity to put their own twist on it and find their own story. I hope people hear it and they can feel the emotions in it and that they can find some kind of catharsis in it as well. That’s one of the main reasons why we do this.”
The artwork produced for this release is particularly striking and certainly a piece that would grab your attention if sat in a rack at your local music store. It also fits the mood and themes within the release like a glove. “The artwork and themes were inspired by our love of Destiny,” explains Ricky. “I was playing the Shadowkeep DLC and it was just so dark and it fully spoke to me. The emotions of feeling trapped and isolated and it felt so cathartic to me. The Eye Of The Swarm is the first boss from that DLC.”
“I was looking at the concept artwork and I remember wanting to utilise the hive and got Shindy Reehal on the case,” adds Andy. “He said he’d never really done anything in this style before but he did a great job.”
“We basically asked him for a big grim looking castle and people getting dragged along by chains!” jokes Chris. “Shindy is a fucking wizard!” continues Ricky. “Every update we got along the way looked ridiculous. What was even cooler was that the imagery was getting created midway through the album process so the imagery actually inspired further writing as we went along.”
Loss is out now via Unique Leader Records.
Like OSIAH on Facebook.