Neo Prog from the Kingdom of Bahrain – Osiris – Tales of the Divers!!!

Ok so I can’t remember how I came across this band,but somehow I was surfing around looking for Osiris. I think it was from Progstreaming or maybe Just for You on MOG. Anyway the first thing that I found were two albums The Remnants of Life and Lost by a band that I thought was Osiris. I started to listen it was some good Prog Space Rock. When I went to Prog Archives and this is what I got when I typed in Osiris……

OSIRIS from Bahrain, a Symphonic/Neo Prog group formed back in 1979. the original lineup information is very limited, so we will have to base our bio in the first 1981 official lineup formed by Mohamed Al-Sadeqi (guitar, vocals), Mohamed Abdul Razak-Aryan (keyboards, vocals), Nabil Alsadeqi (drums), Sabah Alsadeqi (lead vocals) Abdul Razzak Arian (organ and other keyboards), Nader Sharif (piano and other keyboards) and Ali Knonji in the bass

The fact is that this band with strong CAMEL and GENESIS ties has been considered Neo Prog due to the fact that their approach is a bit simpler than the influential bands, but due to the fact OSIRIS was founded in 1979 when Neo wasn’t yet born but at the same time despite the abundance of keyboardists, usually Mohamed Al Sadeqi takes the lead with the guitar, so to be honest I couldn’t swear to what genre they really belong, but this doesn’t matter too much because they are a very solid band Read More

Ok that really doesn’t match what I was listening to, but I scrolled down the page to look at their albums and sure enough no Remnants of Life or Lost. I did listen though to their 2010 release a live album titled Tales of the Divers and it was pretty damn good stuff!! I later did discover that the Space Rock Prog was the product of Osiris the Rebirth!

Today, I went back and listened to Osiris from the Kingdom of Bahrain’s Tales of the Divers and I do agree with the comments above they are a solid band! I enjoyed the mostly instrumental album as I drifted along….

The band has been around since 1981 and has release four studio albums and two live albums.From their biography at their Facebook page I read more about the origins of this unique band.

The origins of the band are tied to the start of the musical career of Mohammed Al-Sadeqi (Jun 1956) and of Nabil Al-Sadeqi (1959), two brothers from the tiny Gulf island state of Bahrain.

They belonged to a musical family and their parents encouraged the brothers’ musical tendencies. At the age of six, Nabil was asked by his father what he wanted to do with his life, Nabil answered the he wanted to become a drummer like Ringo STARR and his father went out and bought his son a drum kit. Both brothers were taught privately by a music teacher. At the age of eleven Mohammed had mastered guitar and Nabil could play drums by the age of eight.

Since childhood, Nabil and Mohammed had been exposed to a wide range of music, listening to the many disc of classical, jazz, local folk and rock music owned by them and their cousins. In the sixties they learned to love the BEATLES but gradually came round to buying records by other bands and followed the scene in music magazines. Towards the end of the sixties, progressive rock and creative music became big and the boys fell in love with bands such as Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Yes and other giant bands of the era.

The music of OSIRIS mixes Anglo-Saxon progressive influences (CAMEL, GENESIS, JETHRO TOLL) with Arabic music, notably the interplay of percussion lines and succeeds in being a genuine musical osmosis between two cultures Read More

The line-up for Tales of the Diver was

Mohammed Al Shafee – vocals
Mohammed Al-Sadeqi – Guitar
Nabil Al-Sadeqi – Drums
A.Razak Aryan – Keyboards
Khalid Al Mutawa (whom the album is dedicated to) – Bass
Haward Tierra – Keyboards

Anyway Check them Out! But just remember Osiris without the Rebirth!!

Here’s a live performance from the band

Comments are closed.