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| | Blood | | | Music Artist : | | O.S.I. | | Music Style : | | General | | Record Label : | | Inside Out Music | | Release Date : | | 2009-05-19 | | Discs : | | 2 | | Store Price : | | $19.98 | | Artistopia's Price: $14.99 | | Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks | | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. The Escape Artist
2. Terminal
3. False Start
4. We Come Undone
5. Radiologue
6. Be The Hero
7. Microburst Alert
8. Stockholm
9. Blood
Disc 21. No Celebrations
2. Christian Brothers
3. Terminal (endless)
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Other Artist Albums
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 O.S.I. "Blood"
Submitted on: 2009-10-04 |
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| If you liked O.S.I. on earlier albums, you will love "Blood". I think it is an even stronger set of music than their debut album and "free", so it was no disappointment to give this a listen for the first time. Grab the 2 disc pressing if you're a dedicated fan, though the single disc release can certainly satisfy on its own. For the uninitiated, I'd call this music "Pink Floyd meets heavy metal" but it has to be heard firsthand to fully explain. |
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I've been listening to this all week...
Submitted on: 2009-08-25 |
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| ...and it's great. I'll echo the comments of others: this are really interesting heavy compositions, Moore's spacy vocal delivery fits in well, and Gavin Harrison's drumming is absolutely amazing as always. (Harrison is a much better drummer than Mike Portnoy... subtle, tasteful, incredible grooves and hyperkinetic fills). And you should get the bonus disc... No Celebrations is the best song on either disc. I've briefly heard the other two OSI albums... this is much better in my humble opinion, and I'd love to hear more from this group of musicians. |
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A great listen from start to finish
Submitted on: 2009-07-18 |
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I bought the first OSI album when it came out due to the connections with Dream Theater, one of my favorite progressive rock/metal bands of all time, and needless to say I enjoyed that album very much. I mostly steered clear of "Free" based on some of the negative reviews I'd heard. However, I decided to give "Blood" a try, especially after I learned that Gavin Harrison from Porcupine Tree would be sitting in behind the drumkit.
The album is aggressive and powerful but also has a polished sleekness to it that makes it sound very modern even though its roots are in classic prog metal from the 90s. There are many ambient hints of electronica and alternative rock offered by Kevin Moore that blend incredibly well with the heavy guitar riffs delivered by Jim Matheos. The vocals are cool and subdued as we've come to expect from OSI, and yet they complement the music perfectly.
The cameo by Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth on the track 'Stockholm' reminds me of everything great about their album "Damnation" fused with the simmering power of OSI. 'The Escape Artist' is a fantastic high-energy opener and sets the tone for the rest of the album. 'False Start' features a great off-time interplay between Matheos and Harrison which must be heard to be believed. 'Radiologue' is simply one of the coolest tracks I've heard in a long time - I listened to it about 15 times in a row at one point, just hitting the repeat button on my player over and over. And the title track is one of the most sinister and memorable album closers I've heard from any band in a long time...
If your musical tastes tend toward progressive rock and/or metal, you should consider giving this album a try. I don't think you will be disappointed at all. |
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The Album to Beat
Submitted on: 2009-07-08 |
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I bought OSI's first album when it was a little known side project. Office of Strategic Influence, I felt, was an interesting concept album with a couple good songs but ultimately flawed. However, I was proud to add it to my library as a noteworthy experiment in the progressive music landscape.
When Free came out, I was a little surprised to see that OSI was still going. Needless to say, this album totally blew me away. What the band accomplished here was nothing short of astonishing, and there was no better contemporary music that a person could listen to at the time.
Blood just further solidifies the band's relevance and astounding achievement. Their style hasn't changed much since they ushered in Free (you might consider Blood its sister album), but it seems to me that they've refined their technique a bit (both musically and in production) and ventured further away from the pop sound of their second album and back into the esoteric realm of their first, armed with newly found inspiration and style. Blood is considerably more difficult to listen to than Free, but it rewards the required patience. The only bad thing I can say about it is that the album is occasionally noisy due to overly zealous use of synthetic sound that don't "blend" as well as they are supposed to, but these mistakes are rare and forgivable (the vast majority of the synthetic sounds are beautifully crafted and brilliantly mixed, as is OSI's style).
Newcomers to the band should probably get Free first before attempting Blood, but getting Blood first certainly won't be a problem. In my opinion, Free is still their best album, but the band is definitely moving forward with new material--they can't make Free over again, so they need to do something different. Blood provides just that, and if anything proves that OSI has some staying power yet! |
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Thick, Layered and Delicious Material Due to Mature Musicianship
Submitted on: 2009-07-02 |
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Bought the album today on amazon's recommendation (Thank you!) and one of my best blind decisions of all time. If i were to compare the music to anything i've heard before, i'd say it was a mix of the tasty riffage from dream theater, the compelling rhythm of porcupine tree, the electronic ambience of Radiohead/Thom Yorke, and the Consistent electronic structure of NIN.
The album is Thick, and layered with electronic ambience. Each song takes more than one listen to fully digest the different sounds you hear. But this does not take away from the fact that they scattered yet frequent Prog metal licks and riffs are enough to satisfy even the most closed-minded and pompous progressive fans.
Tracks that i'm most interested in so far include:
False Start
Radiologue
Be the Hero
Stockholm
Blood
These tracks epitomize everything that makes progressive metal not only compelling, but fun. If you are even half interested in any of the bands i listed at the beginning of my review (especially Dream theater and Porcupine Tree) then you are fairly garunteed to enjoy this album thoroughly. Check it out. |
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