Light Remains: An Interview with Born of Osiris on Their Forthcoming Album ‘Through Shadows’
In the last few months, Born of Osiris has had a lot of changes. From parting ways with their long-time guitarist Lee McKinney and keyboardist Joe Buras, to announcing Fallujah guitarist Scott Carstairs as their temporary fill-in and a brand-new album.
So far, 2025 has served as pretty turbulent for the prog-metal outfit. Despite all that, however, the band is finally unleashing all of this energy into their ninth studio album and first full-length record in four years, Through Shadows. Releasing via Sumerian Records, the album follows their lockdown project Angel or Alien, and for those that remember, this record was in itself an art form of mass destruction.
When you listen to Through Shadows, Born of Osiris catapults you into their rawest and most honest album yet. Themes of darkness and sadness surround it, but all in all, there’s a victory that follows and reminds you to keep on when the going gets tough. Each song has a potent message, and one that’s a universal experience for many of us.
Coming off the back of a sold-out show in Calgary with The Browning and Conviction, I sat down with Born of Osiris to discuss all things Through Shadows, leaning into each other for support following abrupt band lineup changes and what songs they’re excited to debut live from the new album.
This new record marks a lot of firsts for Born of Osiris – It sees you come together as a three-piece uniting in ways you probably haven’t needed to before. It’s also your first studio LP in four years. How would you describe this new chapter that this record brings?
Nick Rossi: Good question. I think it reflects what’s been happening in our personal lives. A lot of these songs have been worked on for a long time, and they reflect the journey that we’ve all experienced. And that’s essentially what we’re trying to show in the album. It’s all been a long time coming, and we’re really excited for people to finally be able to listen to it.
Cameron Losch: I will add that the album took us four years [to make]. There were a lot of deep dives within all of ourselves, and I think one interesting thing to note is that while working on this album, we didn’t realise that we were actually writing lyrics about each other. In the band, in our struggles. It’s almost as if we were talking to each other, and maybe we didn’t really truly realise that until the album was finished. And we’re looking at the aftermath of everything that has happened before, in between and after. The mind is an interesting thing.
The band has previously stated that the album title-track, “Through Shadows,” is about confronting the darkness with the understanding that “without shadow, there is no light” – a pretty profound statement that feels like it comes as a reaction of an epiphany of some sort. Can you expand a little on what brought you to this realisation?
CL: So I guess I should start from the beginning, on where we got the album title from. Although the album title is Through Shadows, that’s taken from a longer phrase, ‘through shadow light remains.’ And this means that even though we go through dark times, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. So you just have to be resilient because things are going to get dark, and it might get darker. “Through Shadows” is about holding on to hope as we all have our struggles. Whether it be losing somebody through addiction or old age, a relative or someone you thought would be with you forever. The album is about perseverance.
NR: To add to that, the whole chorus line in “Through Shadows” says, “Welcome to the end, nowhere left.” So, you start out feeling like, ‘I’m at rock bottom here, I don’t know what’s coming next.’ Then we lead into the main phase, where Cameron mentioned that through shadow light remains. So, the whole point of this song is that even when you feel you’re at the very bottom and as though there is nowhere left to go, you manage to pick yourself right back up. You keep going until you find that speck of light, and eventually it just breaks open, and you find yourself in a new phase of life.
Overall, the record sounds a lot more progressive, there’s a lot of colourful synths to it and noodle riffage. Were there any specific equipment changes this time around that helped sculpt this sound? Or any change in musical influences?
NR: I think one of the biggest focuses for us is that, throughout the years, we’ve moved closer towards doing a lot of the production and the creation of the album ourselves. We’ve all leaned into producing and writing a lot harder on this one. And, of course, we also worked with some amazing people. More so in the beginning stages as we wanted to explore new things.
There’s some cool vocal sampling stuff on the album. As for my journey, I’m super passionate about synths and electronics, and I know Cameron is, too. We’re both really interested in technology and how it’s getting so amazing. There are some new things that we tried out and got to experiment with on this album, and we are always pushing ourselves as musicians and producers to give back to the band and make it the best it can be.
CL: Nick will often send me text messages saying, ‘Yo, check out this new programme. This is super cool.’ And that kind of feeds into what he mentioned about staying modern. There’s always a new producer or a new band coming out with groundbreaking synths, and we’re trying to stay right there on the edge of technology. I think we’ve always been a band that’s ahead of the curve, so we don’t want to fall behind. We make sure to keep up to date with our programmes, see what’s new and stay learning new techniques as well.
As musicians who are venturing more towards producing your own work as well, how do you find switching between those creative heads of playing instruments and then thinking like a producer?
NR: I spoke to Cameron about this the other day. We’re not a band that tends to write music on the road or anything. And I think a lot of the beauty of travelling the world and experiencing things good and bad, those experiences float around your brain, and when you get home, everything that you’ve absorbed just explodes. At least for me. It feels like it explodes onto a canvas to write music. I think being able to have that is powerful for us.
On the album, you have a collaborative single with Spencer Chamberlain (Underoath) titled “Activated” Can you tell us how this collaboration surfaced and what the experience was like?
NR: As far as I know, I think Ronnie, or someone in the band, reached out to Chamberlain on social media and connected with him. I didn’t speak with him, but we were very excited because Underoath is a legendary band. It’s also the first feature the band has ever had. I don’t think there’s been a guest vocal feature before, and being who he is, and as fans of Underoath, we were happy to have him. One day, he came through with a part that he recorded, and we were good to go with that because we loved it.
CL: We sent him the song in a very bare bones, unstructured way at first, and he sent his verse and that helped us shape the rest of the song and how we wanted the structure to go. He did such a great job, and I personally, well, the whole band is a huge fan of Underoath, but I was really affected by their live show when I was very young. They were one of the very first heavy bands that I saw live. So, to go from having that experience as a teenager to now, having my hero on an album with me and my band is just beyond words.
Yeah, of course. It’s like a full circle moment. So, as we know, there has been a change in the band lineup recently. What’s really bringing you guys together at this moment in time, to keep seeing things through and make sure that this album drop on Friday is a special moment for your fans?
NR: Honestly, for me, it comes back to the roots of when I was 12 years old. I knew from the get-go that this is what I wanted to do. I know Cameron and Ronnie feel the same and lately we’ve been stripping it back and reminding ourselves that this is what we were born to do. This is what we love the most, and nothing can stop us from bonding together and continuing to create music and bringing it to people.
We do a signing every day after our show, at our merch table. We don’t charge any money; we are just happy to meet these people because they are the ones who fill the rooms, and they are the ones who allow us to live this dream and keep that childhood spark going. I think it’s so important to never lose that, because the second you lose that, it starts to feel like a job. It’s never that for me. It’s pure passion and love, and that’s what is the glue right now for us, I think.
The Through Shadows US tour kicks off this September, and you have a killer lineup with support from The Browning, VCTMS, Lost in Separation and AXTY. Have you picked this lineup yourself?
CL: Yeah, let’s go in order. Johnny, the singer of the Browning, was very proactive in messaging me, trying to get a tour together. I’ve been a huge fan of his band, and he was persistent enough with the messages, saying things like, ‘Yo, when are we gonna get a tour going?’ And we finally made it work, so we’re actually in Canada with them right now. We have done several tours with VCTMS, and we love them so much. Meredith is their drummer and is a very close friend of mine. I think she would be a great advocate for stories like ‘through shadows, light remains,’ because she has been through a lot. I would let her tell her own story, but I know she’s been through many hurdles while being a drummer with health struggles. So she has really cool stories to tell, and she could relate to the album title.
AXTY is from Brazil. We brought them on their first USA tour ever, just this last February, and that was a lot of fun. We brought them out and got to see the adventure they would go through just being in the United States for the very first time. So it was magical to see them experience that every day. Lost in Separation, they’re great guys, love the music, and the singer has been a close friend for a while now. They were also on that headliner we did in February with AXTY, and we had so much fun with those bands and the crowd. They were a crowd favourite, too, lots of people came to see them and they’re good friends. So we thought, let’s do it again because it worked last time, and we love them.
Is there a song specifically on the album that you’re particularly excited to play live?
CL: I’m very excited for everybody to hear the track that’s called “Inverno,” it’s a lot of fun. It’s a cinematic piece, Nick jokes about some of the breakdowns and sounds that we come up with. He calls it ‘Home Alone Core’ because it sounds like Christmas, but it’s also going to rip your face off, so watch out for that one because it’s going to be insane live.
NR: I’m going to say the same song because it just has that signature sound that Cameron brought on day one. It hits you in the face, and I think that’s what people like about the band. We’ve tried a lot of things, and I think people always like to hear wild twists and turns from us, so it’s going to be cool live.
Lastly, what piece of advice would you give to a new BOC listener based on what to expect on the new record?
CL: Well, for a brand new Born of Osiris listener, if I were to package it up, I would say, get ready for a very heavy album. Also, prepare for elements of cinematic approaches with sprinkles of clean vocals and repeating themes. It’s a progressive roller coaster that will leave you with memorable melodies that you will be thirsting for more.
NR: I would encourage listeners on this album to take some time with the lyrics. I think there’s a lot to resonate with. Going back to your first question, I think a lot of the themes we express are universal. As far as the music goes, I think it’s going to take you for a ride. We tried a lot of new things. We have things in there that I think old fans are going to appreciate. We tried to cover it all, like we usually do, but this one hits a little different for us, all things considered. We’re very proud of it, and we’re really happy it’s finally coming up.
Born of Osiris’ Through Shadows comes out on July 11 via Sumerian Records.
