At 8 songs and barely 20 minutes, there’s not a lot to sink your teeth into, but even with the brevity, it shows the band in top form and developing their growing, melodic, soaring prowess blended with the choppy, djenty, proggy backbone they have honed over the years.

The short (3 minutes or so) direct songs all feature ample keyboards and stuttering riffs, but there are some of the band’s best moments of tier career are contained on this short little release. Standouts include “Under the Gun”, with one of the more pleasantly additive, pleasing little synth lines on the genre of recent memory and closer “One Without the Other” with a cool catchy chorus and melody, that sees the band creep even closer to Between the Buried and Me realms.

In between, is the expected stuttering, clinical staccato riffs, robotic synths growls, screams and raspy croons. There’s a little more aggression for the more blasting “Disconnectome”, and more burly “Analog in the Cells” and the first single “Silence the Echo” also has some really cool more dramatic, experimental moments.

Its a shame the release is so short (a second album is also planned for later this year), but it is quality over quantity, even though I’d love to hear these guys dabble in sprawling 10-minute numbers.

In 2011 they released their best album, The Discovery. Memorable songs, beautiful keyboards, coupled with pounding blast beats and an amazing guitar sound. Some months later the band fired guitarist Jason Richardson. He left to join Chelsea Grin and Jason was such a strong songwriter and I feel his departure from BOO, has affected the band a bit, as this is not as strong as their previous album.

“Machine” opens the album with an intro that builds to some awesome keyboard sections. Heavy drumming with the djent style coming in full swing with the drum parts. Some excellent guitar solos, with deathcore breakdowns, as well as Fear Factory industrial metal. The song is brutal, melodic and atmospheric all at the same time. Now these type of genres fit BOO, due to the fact that they are great songwriters and the influences tie together beautifully, actually. “Exhilarate” at the 1.40 mark hits like a sledgehammer with keyboards, double bass, amazingly crunchy guitars and some very nice bass guitar. The song eventually breaks into some clean vocals, which are a hit and a miss on the album. The abrupt cleaner parts, takes away from the overall brutality in certain sections, where on The Discovery things transitioned smoother. It is not until “Absolution” that the first blast beats are heard and really from this point on the album gets better, with more djent style drumming patterns and the follow-up song “The Origin” has some amazing blast beats, incredible heaviness, growls, keyboards and solos, one of my favorite songs, on the album, as well as album closer “Vengeance”.

The production is in your face brutal and crisp, however the keyboards do not come through as powerful as on The Discovery, they get a little lost in the overall mix, which is so pummeling, that the drums overpower them in sections. The album cover looks to be a continuance of The Discovery and is beautifully designed, with lyrics included.

Tomorrow We Die Alive is a really good album, at times exceptional, but at other times disjointed. I think the djent style is a bit much and Born of Osiris went for a little more deathcore with this album, than on The Discovery, and some of the blast beats were scaled back, in favor of a little more core style. This, I feel, hurts the band, however when the band gels and the mix comes together on some of the tracks I mentioned, they shine!!

What we get is a slightly more developed, melodic and progressive take on their The New Reign EP. While still a balance of deathcore and tech death metal, the synths have become more integral to the songs rather than random injections or intros and the music has become a little more choppy and complex; not quite the full on plunge into pure technical metal, but a more Meshuggah-ish realm of stammering polyrhythms (i.e. “Thrive”) and elegant solos.The end result will still see a majority of real death metal fans hate them, and the kids will still go nuts for them and get silly tattoos, but like The Faceless and Burning the Masses, Within the Ruins and such, no matter how much you hate the band, you have to admit they have some skill (a fact cemented by the addition of Animals As Leaders virtuoso Tosin Abasi to the bands ranks).

When I visited with the band at Summer Slaughter a couple of years ago, they told me the new album would be better and longer than The New Reign, and they were right on both counts. Though still relatively brisk, the 34 minutes that comprise A Higher Place (as opposed to the EP’s 21 minutes) is chock full of complex, shuddering riffs, spacey synths and a vortex of taught blast beats and arpeggios delivered in twelve succint 2-3 minute stabs. There’s not a wasted second, and even atmospheric intro “Rebirth” is well done. From there, as well as the expected staggering, lurching structures the likes of “Elimination”, “The Accountable”, “Now Arise”  and “Starved”, “Live Like I’m Real”, “Put to Rest”  and “An Ascent” are full of intricate, elegant guitar work that gives the usual deathcore throes some sense of intelligence and atmosphere as opposed to jock core, mead headed-ness.

The well placed synths of Joe Buras are cosmically atmospheric without being Winds of Plague overdone or forced or Arsonists Get All the Girl gimmicky and grating, again giving the material much more of a progressive shimmer with some very cool little refrains in almost all the songs.  The same can be said for Ronnie Canizaro who is present with enough mid range growls and never veers into full on forced, deep, death metal bellows or high register screams. The end result is a very competent and enjoyable album, that while never reaches the promise or expectations after the EP, shows that some of the kids are in fact, all right.

Clocking in at a little over 20 minutes, The New Reign is more of an EP than a full album but crams enough interesting moments in its short time, to be worthwhile. Though synths are hardly new in the genre with the likes of Winds of Plague, Arsonists Get All The Girls and The Devil Wears Prada using them, Chicago’s Born of Osiris use them sparingly and creatively within the framework of the songs and allow them to give a little melody and atmosphere to the choppy and rumbling stylings.

As a whole there isn’t much you haven’t heard in modern American metal; full clean production highlighting crumbling, angular riffage, lots of stern grooves, death metal vocals and the occasional blast beat or melodic lead. However, it’s all done very well and with a skill set that’s commendable, showing a lot of promise for the future. Throw in those aforementioned arpeggios (i.e opener “Rosencrance”, “Empires Erased”) and the well placed moments of synth flocked atmosphere (closer “The Takeover” despite its horrid Korn styled opening riff, “Open Arms to Damnation”) and the lurching Meshuggah styled backbone has a little something different to offer.

Still though, paying full price for what is essentially an 8 song EP is a bit off putting, but probably worth it for fans of the genre.