The Friday (July 28), BYZANTINE will release its new album, "The Cicada Tree", via Metal Blade Records. Heralded as the most underrated band from the New Wave Of American Heavy Metal movement, BYZANTINE has slowly gained a cult-like following after releasing five genre-bending albums. For a preview of "The Cicada Tree", a video for the new single, "Vile Maxim" — directed/edited by Holly Mollohan and produced by Screaming Butterfly Entertainment — can be seen below. To state that "The Cicada Tree" is "classic BYZANTINE" in no way implies that this is an album solely rooted in the band's past. Certainly, all of the hallmarks that have made their sound so compelling for close to two decades are present and correct: muscular-yet-lithe riffs and fluid leads play against gripping, dynamic and at times unpredictable rhythms, while rich melodies and lyrics that are both involved and intelligent wind their way through every track. But, once more, the groove metal unit has continued their steady evolution — the interplay between their members organic and natural, imbuing the record's sixty-two-minute running time with a freshness and urgency. Founding member Chris "OJ" Ojeda states: "The first few albums, you're trying to find your sound, and sometimes you tend to not see the forest for the trees. Now, on album number six, it seems a calmness took hold during the songwriting process, possibly from just having more confidence in our sound. At this point, our fans expect us to experiment and push our boundaries, which is an extremely liberating feeling." "The Cicada Tree" track listing 01. New Ways To Bear Witness 02. Vile Maxim 03. Map Of The Creator 04. Dead As Autumn Leaves 05. Trapjaw 06. The Subjugated 07. Incremental 08. The Cicada Tree 09. Verses Of Violence 10. Moving in Stereo (THE CARS cover) 11. Servitude (FISHBONE cover) To celebrate "The Cicada Tree"'s release, BYZANTINE will have an official album release party on July 29 at The V Club in Charleston, West Virginia (where the "New Ways To Bear Witness" video was filmed). DREAM THE ELECTRIC SLEEP and AGAINST will also perform with BYZANTINE at the event.
Continue reading...
Continue reading...
