Still a group of young men at the release of their third album,
The Discovery,
Born of Osiris, the heavy metal band from Chicago, is also unusual in terms of its lineup, boasting six musicians including a dedicated vocalist, Ronnie Canizaro, and a keyboardist, Joe Buras, who sings. It is Buras in particular who helps lift
Born of Osiris beyond the category of standard-issue metal band. The drummer, Cameron Losch, and the bassist, David Da Rocha, pummel their instruments in the usual metal fashion, guitarists Jason Richardson and
Lee McKinney attack and diddle their instruments as expected. And Canizaro boasts the usual unearthly metal howl. But then there's Buras, whose keyboards twinkle here and there, taking the music in a slightly more sophisticated direction, and whose vocals actually constitute singing rather than howling as he shadows Canizaro, often repeating the lyrics in a manner not so much enraged as, well, just very pissed off. Those keyboards, which occasionally come to the fore, sometimes make
The Discovery sound like an album that was recorded in a studio with two rooms at which a progressive rock band was working next door and their music sometimes bled through the wall. The danger with doing anything out of the ordinary on a metal record is that metal fans will reject it, but in the case of
Born of Osiris, the keyboard elements are an add-on. They do provide occasional respite from the onslaught, but they don't emasculate the band. ~ William Ruhlmann