BORN OF OSIRIS

Go ahead and toss me in with what appears to be a tiny minority of journalists that don't think BORN OF OSIRIS' "The Discovery" is the greatest thing since moist towelettes. Given the obvious jump in compositional creativity, which I will readily admit approaches the awe-inspiring at times, it may be befuddling to some that I find the synthesizer-soaked, progressive deathcore that was so fresh and charming on 2007's "The New Reign" and 2009's "A Higher Place" has all but disappeared on "The Discovery". It is a case of excess overshadowing memorable song construction.

That does not however mean that I find "The Discovery" to be complete failure by any stretch of the imagination nor or a south of average release. There are several strong, often soaring melodies throughout these busy compositions, including a handful of tracks on the front end of the disc; namely "Follow the Signs", "Singularity", and "Devastate". As far as melodies are concerned though, neither solid nor soothing necessarily equate to "memorable"; and after the halfway point the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach results in a blurring of the boundaries from one track to the next. That also proves to be the case after several repeat visits. The technicality is super impressive and the MESHUGGAH-esque rhythms that everyone and their brother's band have been incorporating work very well on "The Discovery". Still, a little streamlining would have gone a long way, not the least of which should have included the elimination of no less than three electro popping, ambient interludes ("A Solution", "The Omniscient", and "XIV") which add nothing of value to the effort.

One other upside is present. When played at high volume on a good system it becomes even more apparent that "The Discovery" is packed full of amazing musicianship (the guitar work in especially),some scintillating synthesizer lines, and numerous cool "parts." The problem is that in trying to do so much, the forest frequently gets lost for the trees. Sometimes it would have been as simple as eliminating the clean vocal effects during "Regenerate", which do nothing more than distract from an otherwise sturdy tune. Certainly not deserving of anything close to a slam-dunk damning, "The Discovery" still falls just shy of sticking to the ribs. That's a primary reason why it took so long for me to finish reviewing it; too many "I'll listen to it again later and see if it clicks" days.