O.S.I.’s third studio album, Blood, has been officially reissued via Metal Blade Records and is now available as a double CD, digitally, and on vinyl for the first time since the album’s 2009 release. In celebration of the reissue, guitarist and founding member Jim Matheos has made a guitar play-through for the track “False Start.”
With Blood, O.S.I. created an album that stood at the crossroads between Rock and Progressive Metal. Following predecessors Office Of Strategic Influence (2003) and Free (2006), Blood features composing by both Kevin Moore and Jim Matheos.
Moore explains:
We have different musical tastes but an unspoken musical understanding.
The creative process which produced Blood lasted more than a year and was a long distance collaboration that included Matheos sending his ideas via email to Moore, who honed them before mailing the results back to Matheos. At the end of the day, some pieces were sent back and forth countless times, while others, such as the Metal track “Be The Hero” required very little exchange.
Moore adds:
When Jim sent me his tracks, I had a vocal idea right away. I think it all came together in a couple of days. I love when Jim sends really heavy ideas, and he doesn’t mind me chopping them up. It was fun to play around with the time signatures by editing, and adding a lot of Minimoog effects and unison lines.
Blood also features Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison and a guest appearance by Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth) on “Stockholm.” Moore and Matheos took care of the album’s Production themselves, while the mix was done with Grammy winner Phil Magnotti.
Blood Track Listing:
01. The Escape Artist
02. Terminal
03. False Start
04. We Come Undone
05. Radiologue
06. Be the Hero
07. Microburst Alert
08. Stockholm
09. Blood
10. No Celebrations
11. Christian Brothers
12. Terminal (Endless)
