Born of Osiris "Soul Sphere"

With each release, Born of Osiris find themselves burdened with heightened expectations and limitless potential. Throughout the past four albums, the band has showcased some moments of intense creative outputs that has helped distance themselves from the masses. With their signature song structure, colorful synth approach and Lee Mckinney's wonderful lead intricacies there's not much that could really go wrong on a BOO release.

     It's more of the same on Soul Sphere and the group does fail to break through that explosive peak they always seem to hover around. This isn't really a disappointment as much as it has become an expectation. Since their debut when the album peaks with the end of "The Takeover" and the band only picks it up marginally on their sophomore outing, they've never really gone off the deep end like I would have expected them to, like what BTBAM has done for example. What we do get however are some true gems to be housed in the catalogue with "Goddess of the Dawn" exploding with awesome leads and a soaring chorus, and "The Composer" stretching the vocals out in slightly new directions.

     It's surprising that Born of Osiris hasn't become a more commercially oriented outfit. Their vocals have swayed lightly from their origins but that's for obvious reasons of growth and aging. The melodic choruses that make themselves prevalent in so many metalcore and hardcore bands a few albums into their respective discographies don't seem to have plagued BOO at all since they began their career.

     There's been some great growth and development in the guitars and songwriting, which is to be expected when such talented musicians jam together and tour for over a decade. Some of the electronic elements may have been expanded and explored a little more on this album than the others, but it's nothing that can't be appreciated and enjoyed on an album that does display heavy electronic elements at times. Soul Sphere does accomplish everything we would want it to, and gives us new intensity into an already highly regarded collection.