By Rob Kachluba
For the uninitiated, OSI is a prog rock/metal side project band featuring Jim Matheos of Fates Warning and Kevin Moore (ex-Dream Theater). Their latest release Blood sees this project going forwards into a very modern prog rock/metal sound. It is a very compact sound that relies on the constant simple riffing of Matheos, underscored by Moore’s trippy keyboards. Now I must admit that I’m not sure of the vocalist’s name for Katatonia, but the singer for OSI sings in that same kind of monotone style. The fustrating thing about this album is that every other song is a kind of trippy, slow moving experimental type of track that distracts after hearing a more up tempo rocker. They lose all momentum as far as I am concerned. If you are looking for a total wankfest in your prog metal this will not be for you. It is more of a trippy modern simple prog metal disc whose valleys unfortunately show up just as many times as its peaks.
(Inside Out/SPV)
