‘Deathcore’ can be such a dirty word. Where once it was representative of a fresh movement of like minded artists looking to marry the brutality of death metal with the passion and fury of hardcore, now it’s become a byword for cookie cutter cookie monster growls, generic downtuned slam parts and wave after wave of endless breakdowns. There are of course still bands breaking free of this mould and doing legitimately interesting things within the template – from the neo-classical shred of The Faceless to the Cynic-inspired prog of The Contortionist, through to the vicious thrash of scene godfathers The Black Dahlia Murder.
In years gone by it would have been a no brainer to include Born Of Osiris on this list, their synth-augmented progressive sound standing above the pack and bringing something genuinely exciting to the table. Albums like 2011’s The Discovery’ and 2013’s ‘Tomorrow We Die Alive’ were filled with dextrous song writing, epic soundscapes, razor-edged blast beats and nimble, mind blowing guitar runs. So it comes as something as a shock that the band’s latest full length, ‘Soul Sphere’, sees Born of Osiris devolving into something that struggles to set itself apart from the lowest common denominator deathcore also-rans.
Right from the off, the album kicks into a turgid, triplet chugging groove, and aside from the odd little flourish spinkled very lightly across the album’s running time, it never really changes tack. On previous releases the band lived or died by their dynamic approach to composition, however here it seems they’ve happily settled on a much more straightforward approach, and it’s not one we can honestly say has paid off. The almost complete lack of variation in style and pace means that songs bleed into each other without making much in the way of an impact individually. The only way you can really set apart each track is in the minor differences in the chug patterns that crop up constantly in what could be mistaken for a single 46 minute breakdown.
Another disturbing side effect of the simplification of the band’s sound is that, with the more progressive and traditional death metal elements dialled down, the record frequently has a quease-inducing nu metal feel about it. Opening track ‘The Other Half Of Me’ sounds at times like it could have been pulled from any number of post-Fear Factory quasi-industrial records, it’s bouncy riffs and robotic sounding melodic chorus coming across like a modern re-imagining of something Spineshank might have spat out in the early 00’s.
The aforementioned chorus is not unique to this track either – almost all songs on the album feature a big, chant along part. This in itself isn’t a horrible idea, and is arguably one of the only new ingredients Born of Osiris bring to the table here. However, this along with the overall dumbed-down feel of the music does bring into question the band’s motives for injecting their sound with more crowd friendly elements. A cynical person might suggest that the band have consciously aimed for a more palatable sound overall, replacing the sweeping tech-death passages of old with pit friendly chug-alongs and sing-alongs that might entice the odd curious Bring Me The Horizon fan into their world.
There’s nothing wrong with a band evolving over time, and plenty of acts have been able to shift into a more mainstream market without losing what made them special to start with. The issue here is that Born Of Osiris have lost that spark, the vast majority of ‘Soul Sphere’ a mere shadow of what the band are capable of.
There are enjoyable moments on the record, and the band’s musical ability can’t be brought into question – in the few instances they do flex their more technical muscles the guitar playing and drumming are tight and impressive as ever. Those flourishes are sadly way too few and far between however, leaving us overall with a bland and uninspiring dirge of a record. Born Of Osiris are capable of so much more than this, let’s hope next time they prove it.
JAMES LEE