Born Of Osiris

The Chicago-rooted progressive metal unit Born of Osiris emerged among the earliest 2000s deathcore groups to shed that style for a ferocious yet magnetic fusion of technical death metal and metalcore. Flashy dual-guitar leads and keyboard passages bordering on psychedelia define the sound, drawing equally from Judas Priest and Iron Maiden alongside Helloween and Meshuggah. Formed under a standard deathcore banner on the 2007 EP The New Reign, the group pivoted by the time of 2009’s Higher Place toward greater technical sophistication, melodic clarity, and visceral impact, drawing a steadily expanding audience. Four of their albums have charted in the upper half of the Billboard 200, among them Tomorrow We Die Alive, which reached number 27 in 2013. Soul Sphere, issued two years later, climbed to number two on the hard-rock albums chart. The Eternal Reign, a 2017 progressive re-recording of the 2007 debut that reworked every track, drew both strong acclaim and sharp rebuke. The Simulation arrived in 2019 as a 28-minute EP framed as the opening half of a planned double-album project that ultimately did not appear. Instead, the band delivered the unrelated full-length Angel or Alien in July 2021.

Prior to settling on their current name, the musicians performed under Diminished, Your Heart Engraved, and Rosecrance. High-school friends drummer Cameron Losch, guitarists Lee McKinney and Matt Pantelis, vocalist Ronnie Canizaro, keyboardist Joe Buras, and bassist David Da Rocha—who departed in 2018 and was succeeded by Nick Rossi—tested numerous styles before arriving at an early version of their characteristic blend. After circulating a demo and playing a live show, they attracted the interest of Sumerian Records and secured a deal. The New Reign EP surfaced in 2007. Pantelis exited in 2008 ahead of the recording of Higher Place, which sold sufficiently to enter the Top 100. Jason Richardson of All Shall Perish joined temporarily in 2009, appearing on the seven-string-guitar album The Discovery before his dismissal later that year. Self-produced, the 2011 release underperformed on the Billboard 200 yet outperformed earlier efforts on several independent and metal charts.

Reduced to a five-piece, Born of Osiris issued Tomorrow We Die Alive in August 2013. Shifting sonically once more, the band pursued a denser, more orchestrated palette through additional vocal layers and programmed elements supplied by co-producer Nick Sampson. Buras’s keyboards occupied a central role while the group’s aggression stayed undiminished. The album debuted inside the Top 30 and reached the Top Ten on multiple other tallies. Following intensive touring, the members returned to the studio and, during summer 2015, began previewing fragments of a conceptual full-length whose twelve songs were grouped into three four-track “levels”: The Binding, The Fight, and The Release. Released as Soul Sphere amid an extensive tour that was curtailed after McKinney broke his foot, the set peaked at number 67 on the Billboard 200. In 2017 the band returned with the EP The Eternal Reign, a Nick Sampson-produced reinterpretation of their debut. After a summer 2018 tour, Da Rocha departed and Rossi took over. The single and video “The Accursed” appeared in November and served as the lead track for the 25-minute mini-album The Simulation, issued the following January.

Although a follow-up to The Simulation was nearly finished, the group set it aside when Canizaro and Buras began writing new material after ending long-term relationships. They completed Angel or Alien in February 2020, but pandemic-related delays pushed the release to July 2021. The album marked the first twin-guitar configuration since Richardson’s departure after The Discovery, with Rossi switching from bass to guitar and the two guitarists covering bass duties.