OSI was an American progressive rock band, originally formed by Fates Warning guitarist Jim Matheos in 2002.
The band's name is a reference to the Office of Strategic Influence, a short-lived American government agency formed in 2001 to support the War on Terror through propaganda.
The band has featured a number of guest musicians on its albums, including Sean Malone, Steven Wilson, Mikael Akerfeldt, Joey Vera and Gavin Harrison.
OSI was originally intended to be a one-off project, but Matheos and Moore found they both had gaps in their schedules so produced a follow-up.
Free was released in 2006, with Portnoy returning to play drums as a session musician rather than a full band member, due to personal and musical differences between him and Moore.
He recruited Cynic & Gordian Knot fretless bass and Chapman Stickist Sean Malone and Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy to work on the project.
[1][2][3] Matheos then asked Chroma Key and ex-Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore to contribute by adding keyboard arrangements to the music he had written.
[4] Matheos decided to pursue this new direction, sounding closer to Chroma Key than standard progressive metal, over his and Portnoy's original idea.
[3] Cynic and Gordian Knot bassist Sean Malone performed bass, but was credited as a guest musician because his schedule meant he was unable to join Matheos, Moore and Portnoy for the basic tracking sessions.
[8] Moore chose the group's name and album's title, referring to the Office of Strategic Influence, established by the US Government after the September 11 attacks to spread propaganda.
"[19] In September 2008, Moore posted an update on the Chroma Key website, stating that he and Matheos had been working on a third OSI album for several months.
[23] The album received positive reviews:[24][25] Andrew Reilly of Madeloud said that "with Blood the two have finally found the stylistic fusion their first two discs hinted at",[26] and praised Harrison's drumming.
In July 2011 at Sound Farm Studio & Recording Environment final overdubs as well as some additional writing and arranging were completed.
[31] On the current status of O.S.I., co-founder and lead guitarist Jim Matheos offered the following quote in a June 2016 interview about the possibility of a future album, "No, as I just said it's the same situation with John.
[21] Matheos cites progressive rock and heavy metal bands such as Genesis, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath and UFO as influences.