Born of Osiris at the Gramercy Theatre

Ronnie Canizaro

Deathcore band Born of Osiris was formed in 2003 in Palatine, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The group underwent several name changes, including Diminished (2003–2004), Your Heart Engraved (2004–2006), and Rosecrance (2006–2007), before finally settling on Born of Osiris in 2007, basing the name on the tale of Horus, the son of the Egyptian deity Osiris. Born of Osiris' third and most recent album, Tomorrow We Die Alive, was released in 2013. The band presently consists of vocalist Ronnie Canizaro, guitarist Lee McKinney, keyboardist Joe Buras, bassist David Da Rocha and drummer Cameron Losch.

After more than 10 years as an opening act, Born of Osiris finally is headlining concert halls. At the Gramercy Theatre tonight, the band opened with "Empires Erased" from the band's first EP, The New Reign. Surpisingly, the band performed five of the eight songs from that 2007 collection. No songs were performed from 2009's debut A Higher Place album. The rest of the set was from 2011's The Discovery album and from the 2013 Tomorrow We Die Alive album. Like far too many metal bands nowadays, the stage was lit from behind, making the band nearly invisible except for silhouettes throughout the show. Canizaro exhorted the audience to raise their hands, but one doubts he could have seen much of the audience in the darkness that was pierced only by roving lights. As the audience moshed, an energetic Canizaro screamed his growls, the keyboards lent an epic and sometimes symphonic sound, the guitars chugged rich riffs and the breakdowns were executed well. Was it nu metal or was it deathcore? Was it progressive or technical? While the band seemed to have found an interesting way to mix several modern metal influences, the problem is that this overall field of music is so flooded right now that standing out is extremely difficult. A less distracting lighting design that spotlighted the musicians might have helped the audience focus more on the music than on the moshing.