SO THIS NEW BORN OF OSIRIS SONG

I’ve never been able to “get” Born of Osiris. They’re technically proficient enough (these days who isn’t) but they just never really stood out to me when stacked up against their peers. They’re not as proggy as The Faceless, don’t have the songs of After the Burial, aren’t as good players as Animals as Leaders, aren’t as dumbed-down and breakdown happy as Emmure… you get the point. An OK band that never really stuck out for me, for better or worse. And of course there’s the now infamous Danzig Debacle of 2009 which made it incredibly difficult to take these guys seriously; it’ll probably dog this band until they’re Danzig’s age and some young whippersnappers profess ignorance by not knowing who Tosin Abasi is.

But I have now heard the new Born of Osiris song “Follow the Signs” and I think I finally “get it.”

Born of Osiris have always experimented with electronics — that was sort of their “thing,” I guess — but until now it felt half-baked and desperate, like they were trying to create a niche for themselves within the Sumeriancore landscape because they knew that ultimately they needed to do something to stand out (see above). But the brand new Born of Osiris track “Follow the Signs” is really good, in no small part because there’s a whole ton of ear candy via bleeps and bloops and other studio chicanery. How much of this is because of the wizard-like knob twiddling of mixer Jason Suecof is anyone’s guess, but at the very least someone in the band had the idea to put that stuff in there way before Suecof ever got to it (or so I would presume). The song’s also got a bunch of different sections in its mere three minutes and 50 seconds, and feels like a progressive adventure despite being so relatively short.

“Follow the Signs” is posted on Born of Osiris’ Facebook page and will appear on the band’s new album The Discovery, out March 22nd via Sumerian.

-VN