Review by Saxy S for Born of Osiris - The Discovery (2011)

Being a fan of progressive metal was a incredibly weird time during the early 2010s. As djent was beginning to be popularized by bands like Animals As Leaders, After the Burial, and Born of Osiris, I found a lot of it to be less engaging. On one hand, you ended up with highly technical music that lacked memorable structures like hooks and melody, and on the other was something that was closer resembling metalcore/deathcore, which... lacked memorable structures like hooks and melody.

I became aware of this new wave of progressive djent in 2010 after discovering what was, for the time, my new favourite band: Periphery. The key here is the record label; Sumerian Records were about to hit on all cylinders to fire out as many metalcore/deathcore and progressive djent bands that they could in a relatively short period of time. Born of Osiris had already established themselves with The New Reign and were about to take the next step in making their sound more progressive. And the end result was something of value, but could have been refined.

For starters, Born of Osiris are clearly influencing Rings of Saturn with some of the technical passages complimented by dissonant guitar leads with pinch harmonics, as well as the spatial passages on songs like "Singularity". As a result, this brand of deathcore is just as technically proficient as the kind of tech-death giants that Rings of Saturn are, while the breakdown passages split the difference between just regular metalcore breakdowns, and the sort of tonal dissonance that one expects from deathcore. Personally, I prefer the passages in which the breakdowns are complimented by some sort of synth lead that is overlaid on top of the metalcore breakdown, which is reminiscent of a band like August Burns Red. However, most of the time, the breakdown is the feature and while they can be quite heavy, they lack substance beyond "breakdown".

As I said before, the songwriting is very reminiscent of early Rings of Saturn with the technical proficiency in the guitars (as well as some percussion). And while the mixing is quite nice, it does fall into many of the same traps that Sumerian albums continuously fell into during the early 2010s. Most notably, the overabundance of guitar in the mix absolutely diminishes the bass, with the lone exception being the mini solo break on the closer "Behold". And while I feel it would be stupid to mention such a thing, given this is what all of this kind of metalcore sounds like, I cannot help but feel let down when the guitar breakdowns are a lot less bass-y than you would expect.

It all makes for a messy album that still has some good moments, but are bogged down by bad production, and my general displeasure for this type of metalcore music. The album runs far too long and does not have nearly enough memorable moments throughout the track listing to make The Discovery anything more than a blip of the radar. It's influence would be significant however, so I can at least be thankful for that.