BORN OF OSIRIS AT REVERB IN READING
It takes a special kind of tour to keep a pit open all night, and Born of Osiris’ current tour is doing just that. With support from Sentinels, Signs of the Swarm, and Shadow of Intent, this tour is a metal fan’s dream. The crowd at Reverb in Reading, PA may not have been the largest, but they certainly acted like it.
Taking the stage first were New Jersey metalcore natives, Sentinels. As a New Jersey native myself it was nice to see a slice of home on the stage. I feel as though more recently, I have been seeing more of Sentinels and for a fair reason - they know how to work a stage and a crowd. Even though it was early in the night, they had the audience head banging along to their songs and hooked on their performance.
Next up were Signs of the Swarm. They recently released their latest album Absolvere back in September, so the anticipation of hearing some of these new tracks was alive and well. The band played an incredibly tight live set. Vocalist David Simonich had incredible control over his voice as he gave the crowd killer vocals. Their set felt short, leaving me wanting more, but I was glad to hear tracks such as “Hymns Ov Invocation”, “Relevations Ov a Silent King”, and “Death Whistle”. They ended with “Nightcrawler” - an oldie but a goodie.
When Shadow of Intent hit the stage there was a major shift in energy. Up until this point there were a lot of white and bright lights on the stage (a photographer’s dream for this genre). The minute they came on, the stage was basked in dark red lighting and you could feel the fans ready to kick it up a notch. Immediately the pitting started as they opened with “Intensified Genocide”, a new track that will be featured on their forthcoming album Elegy dropping in January. The last release from the band was back in 2019, so fans have been waiting for this new drop and were excited to hear some of the new singles live. While I feel their set was also short, it was nothing short of amazing. Their live sound is so full and heavy it’s no wonder fans were going nuts. Ben Deurr could easily be mistaken for a monster on stage with how low some of his vocals were and guitarist Chris Wiseman was absolutely shredding.
Normally when a crowd yells, “BOO!” it’s not a good sign at a live show. For Born of Osiris, it is quite the opposite however, as the crowd is yelling the acronym for the band name. When the band finally came out, covered in fog and moody lighting, fans were ready to let the rest of their pent up energy out. Drummer Cameron Losch came out to his set which was on a small platform raised up in the back so you had a clear view of him at all times. The band were celebrating the release of their newest album Angel and Alien so their LED background displayed visuals that matched the album art. They played a great mix of tracks from their discography including “Poster Child”, “Under the Gun”, and “Divergency”. BOO has a fantastic live stage presence that really filled the venue and made it impossible to look away. At all times, members were interacting with the audience - performing straight to them, reaching out to hold hands with fans, and at one point vocalist Ronnie Canizaro even reached out to record himself on a fan’s phone. It was great to see Lee McKinney and Nick Rossi constantly switching sides on the stage and playing right next to each other for the audience as well. Vocalist Joe Buras had an incredibly infectious smile whenever he interacted with the crowd which warmed my heart to see. He was clearly having an amazing time getting to do what he loves. Fans surfed up and dove off the stage, causing chaos in the crowd as there were tables and chairs getting knocked over in the process (with people sitting at them I might add). This was absolutely a tour that should not be missed as every band on it absolutely killed it. I couldn’t recommend making it out to one of the remaining shows enough.
Nicole DiBenedetto is a photographer based out of New Jersey. She likes making new friends and meeting new people so catch her out in the pit and say hi!