OSI
Fire Make Thunder

For all prog metal lovers, the release of "Fire make thunder" was one of the most interesting and anticipated of 2012: the side project OSI has grown day by day, attracting fans, convincing musical opinion leaders, producing notable episodes of atypical, electronic, "different" prog metal compared to the reference bands.

It is first important to take a step back and retrace the steps that led to the creation of this entity, based on two musicians: Kevin Moore already famous for being the keyboardist of Dream Theater and Fates Warning, and Jim Matheos guitarist and leader of Fates Warning. An adventure that began in 2003 with the debut "Office of Strategic Influence" (which also stands for the band's name) with the collaboration of a drummer of the caliber of Mike Portnoy, who was also present in the splendid "Free" (2006) before leaving to make way for Gavin Harrison. With him, Matheos and Moore created "Blood" (2009), the darkest and most controversial episode of their discography. Three years after that publication, the OSI project released "Fire make thunder," the fourth studio album, the first managed by Metal Blade Records.

What is in this new and awaited work? It's hard to say precisely, except to pull out the usual phrase used for more complex albums, which is "it's a disc that requires multiple listens." And it really is like that for FMT, although it can already be understood after the first listen that this is probably the most assimilable chapter from a compositional point of view. Whether it was the change of label, or that the Matheos/Moore duo is attempting a new "approach" to the material, the fact remains that FMT emerges as a weaker CD than usual, entangled in itself and with fewer interesting cues compared to the past.

The opening is entrusted to "Cold call," a decent piece of prog/electronic metal, where Matheos's guitar takes the scene, never before so aggressive. More convincing is the following "Guards," more direct, with the unmistakable "metropolitan" sound of OSI resurfacing. Moore's monotonous voice fits well with the gray atmospheres of the combo. After an unusually forceful start, the general tone drops back down, first in the hypnotic ballad "Indian curse" and then in the more successful "Wind won't howl," an example of OSI's urban metal. Just the time to wink at the industrial/darkwave scene with "Big chief II," that the final "Invisible men" arrives, a classic prog piece with multiple facets, where light electronic friction accompanies sudden metallic bursts, always well dominated by Moore's voice.

Globally "Fire make thunder" is a work that earns the right sufficiency, but several listens are not enough to completely wipe out the shadows of the CD: less spontaneous than the first three OSI albums, this latest effort seems too "constructed" and often gives the impression of being a bit too mannered ("Indian curse," "For nothing"). The overall tone of the CD is that of a work attempting to retrace the feats of past works, without reaching the solutions that contributed to making "Free" and "Blood" fully successful albums.

The class is there and it is noticeable, but this time the ideas have come up short.

1. "Cold Call" (7:10)
2. "Guards" (5:03)
3. "Indian Curse" (4:43)
4. "Enemy Prayer" (4:54)
5. "Wind Won't Howl" (5:05)
6. "Big Chief II" (3:04)
7. "For Nothing" (3:19)
8. "Invisible Men" (9:54)