Let the hype commence...

Since I wasn't around yesterday afternoon...

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Steven Wilson / Mikael Akerfeldt collaboration working album title is Storm Corrosion. Don't expect any metal on this one.

REVIEW: OSI, Blood (2009, InsideOut Music)

It’s been three years, and thus the two-headed beast that is OSI awakens from deep sleep to present us with another slice of electronic-inspired prog in the form of Blood, their third LP.

OSI has been a shifting, unsettling musical entity. While the first album drew equally from the talents of Mike Portnoy, Kevin Moore, Jim Matheos and Sean Malone to create an impressive debut release that added a significant dollop of electronic modern-ness to the often staid genre of progressive metal. 2006 (yep, three years following their debut), OSI returned with Free, which saw Portnoy’s participation greatly reduced, and Malone replaced by Joey Vera (Armored Saint, Fates Warning) on bass. Blood sees further shifts in band line-up, with Matheos handling bass as well as guitar, and Portnoy replaced by Gavin Harrison, currently of Porcupine Tree and one of the more busy progressive rock drummers currently active in the genre. Also guesting on Blood is Opeth frontman Michael Åkerfeldt on the appropriately titled “Stockholm.”

Moore’s vocals are subtle, mixed down, not overly nuanced, but perhaps perfect for the sound the band has crafted here. There’s an eerie sense of distance here in his vocal presentation, a kind of disconnect, that suits the processed, chopped up music Moore and Matheos has crafted here. Meanwhile, his keyboard sounds rely more on mood than flash. Little buzzes, sweeps, moog and processed Rhodes-like electric piano are constants in his sonic repertoire, and it’s his sense of mood and colour and shape that perhaps hint most at what was lost when he left Dream Theater in 1994. Matheos acquits himself well on bass, and his guitar playing exhibits every bit as much awareness of space and shape as Moore’s keyboard playing does. If you’re buying this to hear Matheos let loose and show off, you’re making a mistake…his playing is restrained, subtle, and centered around the needs of the song and arrangement.

Gavin Harrison’s performance here is not a surprise. There’s a reason he’s so well regarded as a drummer, and his abilities are showcased well here. When he has to let loose and pound, he does so with admirable force and dexterity…no plodding dinosaur beats for him. Elsewhere he adds little touches of percussion and subtlety (I keep coming back to that word a lot here) adding to the arrangement without distracting from the arrangement. He’s the right drummer for this material, certainly.

While I continually have used the word subtle, or variations thereof, throughout the first few paragraphs, that should not imply that Blood is simply a bunch of laid back grooved and late night chill out music. Songs like “False Start,” "Be The Hero" and “Blood” have all the hallmarks of progressive metal, just tuned and shaped a little differently. “False Start” sees Matheos rip on rhythm guitar, his bass playing tight and heavy, while Harrison lets fly with some impressive rolls and fills propelling the song forward. Add to that some carefully placed keyboard bits and Moore’s disaffected, distanced vocals, and you have an interesting mix that really succeeds as a result of the tension inherent in the two different styles. “We Come Undone,” on the other hand, is far more keyboard driven, opening with a gentle, yet slightly unsettling keyboard line, brushed traps and hi hat (processed by the sound of it), and more of Moore’s trademark vocals. I like the variety of keyboard sounds here, and this song certainly fits the bill as late night chill out music, albeit with a twist. Like so much music in this genre, nothing is really ever as simple as it seems.

“Microburst Alert” is about as processed as they come, with loads of samples that sound as if they have been acquired from recordings at some scientific research station of control center. Keys, percussion, bass…everything has been manipulated within an inch of its life until nothing, I think, sounds like it did when initially committed to tape or digital 1’s and 0’s. And as an Opeth fan, I have to admit my biggest interest was in hearing how Mikael Åkerfeldt was integrated into the band’s sound. “Stockholm” gives us that opportunity, and I am thankful to say his voice has seen limited, if any, post-production processing, and we get his gloriously smooth tenor-baritone, filled with inflection and emotion, on a song that could easily have fit on an album like Damnation or Watershed. It’s eerie, it’s dark, and Åkerfeldt’s voice just makes it even more so. I hate saying a guest-driven song is the highlight of an album, but for this listener, “Stockholm” definitely is.

OSI is a tough nut to crack in some ways, and they are a hard band to easily recommend. They’re not really prog metal any more, they’re not electronica, they’re not ambient, even though they certainly have elements of each style, and explore each of them in time. Unlike supergroups like Transatlantic, OSI’s sound really is less about what each individual musician brings to the table and more about the chemistry that results from combining them…one could easily tell, for example, what Neal Morse or Roine Stolt brought to Transatlantic, yet OSI’s sound is entirely its own. Blood is an album that offers something new with each subsequent listen, unraveling and revealing secrets every time it’s spun.


1. The Escape Artist - 5:51
2. Terminal - 6:29
3. False Start - 3:05
4. We Come Undone - 4:04
5. Radiologue - 6:05
6. Be the Hero - 5:52
7. Microburst Alert - 3:49
8. Stockholm - 6:42
9. Blood - 5:24

Personnel:
Kevin Moore - Vocals, Keyboards
Jim Matheos - Guitar, Bass
Gavin Harrison - Drums
Mikael Åkerfeldt - Vocals on "Stockholm"
Tim Bowness - Vocals on "No Celebrations"

OSI: New album in 2009

New album in spring 2009

Guests: Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree) & Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth)

Experts consider the music of the creative duo, OSI, a perfect example of inventiveness and innovation. Kevin Moore and Jim Matheos have released two albums to date (Office Of Strategic Influence, 2003, & Free, 2006) and are currently working on their new, as yet untitled third recording, scheduled for release in spring 2009.

Along with Moore and Matheos, the new album will also feature Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison. In addition, there will be a guest appearance by Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth) on ‘Stockholm’, which the Swede co-composed. Mixing is scheduled to begin in early December with engineer Phil Magnotti.