Killing is Their BYZness, and BYZness is Good.
With that as a disclaimer, the thesis of this review (Do reviews have theses? This is what you get when you spend years getting great at academic writing and forget how people actually talk) is that Byzantine is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, live band in metal today, and that if you’ve never heard of them, you damn well should have by now and need to fix that shit immediately.
Hailing from Charleston, West Virginia, Byzantine is the blue-collar progressive thrash band you didn’t know you needed in your life. Their albums are characterized by furious and rhythmically intricate riffing that gives way to the occasional blues influence, given momentum by the distinct and versatile vocals of front-man and guitarist Chris “OJ” Ojeda. The band’s progressive credentials are solidified by surgically precise start-stop breakdowns, extended clean passages within multi-movement masterpieces, and soaring lead work against backdrops that weave effortlessly between changes in time signature. You listen to a Byzantine album, and subconsciously prepare yourself for them to be “good, but not that good” live.
This is where you’d be dead wrong. Having been a fan of theirs for a few years now, I had somehow missed their trips to the NYC area until August 30, where I found myself not only seeing them, but opening for them at Gold Sounds in Brooklyn. (I suppose this is another spot for a disclaimer: the author’s band Mad Phoenix is loosely affiliated with Byzantine via this shared stage and any conflict of interest is entirely coincidental. Mad Phoenix was amazing. Send us money directly so we can make merch to sell you for more money.) Byzantine’s live show brought every ounce of technical precision, every madman wail, every fingers-in-knots riff that you’d come to expect from their studio cuts, and they did so with an unrelenting intensity that proved that these were no prog droids, soullessly playing their way through bloated compositions with all the joy of someone being audited by the IRS. In a set dominated primarily by tracks from earlier in their 19-year tenure, Byzantine gave justification for why some in the metal world say (and more should say) “Nobody beats the Byz.”
The tone was set from the very first note as the band opened with “Stick Figure” from the band’s 2004 debut, The Fundamental Component. This song kicks off with off-kilter, harmonized, dual-guitar tapping, and demonstrated from the get-go the mixture of brutality and finesse that was to come. This was followed up by the groove-heavy “My New Casket” from the same album. The band then unleashed a taste of their trademark sound on the cut “Soul Eraser” from 2013’s self-titled effort, the first record Byzantine produced following a temporary breakup and the album that established the benchmarks and defining characteristics of their more recent material.
Beginning as a mid-tempo groovy track, “Soul Eraser” then gives way to a full-bore thrash section that plays exactly like the logical progression of Testament or Exodus with feet firmly planted in the 21st century. Early in the set, Byzantine was already displaying their mastery of multiple subgenres of heavy music, and their tasteful ability to weave them together. This exploration continued with the ambitious, 7-minute-plus “Justinian Code” from 2016’s To Release Is to Resolve. This proved to be a standout display of musicianship, featuring a dual harmonized lead from Ojeda and lead guitarist Brian Henderson. Henderson went on to have a moment in the spotlight, taking over lead vocals during the song’s extended clean passage, his voice soaring over a lead guitar line doubling its melody.
Drummer Matt Bowles shined on the next cut of the set, masterfully navigating the syncopated and disjointed rhythms of “Jeremiad” and the neo-thrash rager “Ancestry of the Antichrist” from their 2005 effort, …And They Shall Take Up Serpents. Bowles helped guide the ship through these choppier and more aggressive waters, never losing his way and likewise helping the rest of the band anchor themselves to an incomparably tight performance. These tracks were followed up by the musical chimaira “Oblivion Beckons” from the 2008 album of the same name. Blending Meshuggah-like riffing with an unfairly-catchy chorus and a Pantera-esque groove, “Oblivion…” kept the momentum going as the band continued to deliver hit after hit.
As a guitarist myself, I tend to focus on a band’s live guitar playing as it is, but my jaw was on the floor and eyes glued to Henderson’s and Ojeda’s hands during the insane verse riff of “To Release.” It’s the little things that really count, as this riff incorporates slides up and out of speedily-picked palm-muted notes. Writing this as words doesn’t do it justice as many bands incorporate slides as flourishes; what sets this apart is the slides were *part of the riff* and perfectly in-sync with one another, as opposed to just noises for accentuation. Simply put, it looked so damn cool, and the fact that Ojeda was singing over it stood as a testament to his skills as a vocalist and frontman.
Following up the track “Centurion” was the only cut off the band’s most recent release, 2017’s The Cicada Tree. After announcing that they “had some fast ones” for us, Byzantine launched into “Vile Maxim,” a bare knuckle thrash ripper featuring the meanest bass line ever committed to tape. New bassist Ryan Postlethwait held down this key moment with an aggressive and biting bass tone as Ojeda and Henderson cut their way through dissonant breakdowns and blinding lead passages. My only wish is that there had been more songs from this album featured in the set, as it encapsulated the band’s recent years as a project supported by a dedicated fan-base and taking advantage of the full musical freedom of self-released work.
To close things out, the band again revisited their early career with the relentless “Salem, Ark” from Serpents. In addition to all the things I’ve said about their musicianship, this final song encapsulated what I considered to be the greatest thing about this show: Byzantine comes to have a good fucking time. Sure, they’re impeccably tight and some of the finest musicians I’ve seen perform live, but they’re also getting into the music and letting it wash through them. “Salem, Ark” closes with a ripping lead over a stripped-down and rhythmically-crushing rhythm guitar part. During this moment of the song, Ojeda marched from one side of the other, beckoning people in the crowd to come up and get a fist bump from his free hand while his left (the Left Hand of Doom, I’ve christened it) maintained the rhythm, headbanging the whole time. It would be easy for a band this progressive and precise to focus entirely on the execution and let showmanship fall by the wayside, but somehow Byzantine manages to do it all, and to do it all better than many bands I’ve seen.
All told, August 30, 2019 is a night that I won’t soon be forgetting. It’s performances like these that remind you of what it is to see a band on stage giving their all. There was no reliance on empty spectacle or using technology as a crutch, but rather a band who has worked their asses off to be able to deliver a crushing show that gives fans the studio-quality sound they expect in an active and energetic live scenario. Talking to Ojeda after the show, I joked about needing to sell my equipment and find a new hobby outside of music, as I’d never catch up with them. But in reality, seeing this band reminded me of why I love playing metal, and just made me want to become more of a musician. If you truly love what heavy music can accomplish, and you get a chance to see Byzantine, don’t hesitate. Just be there.
