Born of Osiris – Through Shadows
Release Date: 11th July 2025
Label: Sumerian
Order/Stream
Genre: Progressive Metalcore, Djent.
FFO: Veil of Maya, All Shall Perish, Erra.
Review By: Jeff Finch
Progressive metalcore outfit Born of Osiris is a name that virtually every metalhead has at least heard, even if their music hasn’t been digested. Purveyors of excellent musicianship and very much a part of the Djent community, the band currently sits at a dozen past members, indicative of instability and thus having an impact on musical quality, even if the music itself is clearly not lacking in technical ability. With this upcoming album Through Shadows, the band, now a three-piece, has kept the spirit of their music alive and manages to do enough to keep fans confident that there are still many years to come, but some work still to be done.
As mentioned previously, Born of Osiris is a Djent band, and the heavy, distorted, thick chugs encompassing nearly every song go a long way towards making sure listeners never forget it. For their part, these three have crafted songs that display their technical prowess and songwriting abilities, but at points end up lacking punch and gusto that could easily bring the record up. Among the highlights of the album are the lead vocals of Ronnie Canizaro; able to go low with his growls, high with his shrieks, and even throw in some cleans, his Swiss Army knife style lends itself well to the type of music the band likes, as the songs seem broken up into pieces that ultimately make one cohesive unit.
An anthemic chorus to break up the maelstrom of heavy greets us on opener Seppuku, up to that point having been a mixture of growls and shrieks, the latter of which are exceedingly impressive and need more airtime, just as when the breakdown hits. The song is replete with bouncy, djenty riffs and a bevy of double bass, but the song lacks punch. It feels like the band is working towards an ending but doesn’t know how to approach it, so musically it sounds flat. Technically sound, yes, but flat and uninspired. The addition of audible keyboards on Elevate do just that, elevating the song to higher levels than would otherwise be reached. Vocals are solid, music is tight, but the song is meandering, ultimately going nowhere and providing little to remember outside of those keyboards.
The title track is where the album begins picking up; layered vocals, clean over harsh, pepper the song early, the sporadic screams giving the song the jolt it needs. The bass pops, the keyboards once again stick out and bring an added layer of sound and enjoyment and, while the buildup to the breakdown is better than the breakdown itself, the intensely melodic solo as the song moves towards its conclusion is phenomenal, a highlight of an already excellent track.
Not a band to ignore their own history and that of their contemporaries, The War That You Are takes a sharp left turn down a one way street by opening with a gnarly round of Mathcore grooves, the synths, drums, and guitars all at their own beat, the cacophony both captivating and jarring. Vocally, the song runs the gamut, from clean chorus to hard hitting highs, with a solid foundation of growls for good measure. Though the inevitable breakdown isn’t quite a normal breakdown, it’s better for it, as the heaviness is emboldened by the rest of the band still pushing forward, no moments of silence necessary to build tension or excitement.
What Born of Osiris does on this album is stay consistent, take minimal chances, and ultimately provide an album that borders on very good, with some obvious weak spots that need addressing. For the most part, their clean choruses are weak and do little to advance a song or keep listener intrigue at a fever pitch. Mixing up the lows and highs in the choruses is a far better approach, one of the all unclean choruses, courtesy of A Mind Short Circuiting, proving to be the prime example, the powerful combination of harsh vocals and pummeling, unrelenting pace displaying the band at their best. They even forgo a breakdown for a transition into bedlam after a piercing shriek has been let loose from the bowels of Hell, giving fans confirmation that the band still knows how to create captivating music and, when they do so, remind listeners that they are still capable of producing music at a high level. They just need to be more consistent and cognizant, lest they drive listeners away with subpar songwriting.
(3.5 / 5)
