Byzantine is a groove metal, thrash metal & metalcore band from Charleston, West Virginia consisting of bassist Ryan Postlethwait, drummer Matt Bowles, lead guitarists Brian Henderson & Tony Rohrbough and finally frontman/rhythm guitarist Chris Ojeda. Forming during the beginning of the new millennium, they would put out 5 LPs together until signing with Metal Blade Records almost a decade ago & making their debut for the label on The Cicada Tree. Nearly 7 years after Chris’ solo debut Lullabyz, the band’s getting back together for their 7th full-length album & Metal Blade sophomore effort.

“Consequentia” begins with some guitars & clean vocals singing about being frozen in time eternally along with tomorrow bringing what today has made whereas “A Place We Cannot Go” turns up the heaviness so they can tackle the ever growing problem of mass shootings in the U.S., particularly in schools. The lead single “Floating Chrysanthema” details a bleak dystopian future when AI overpowers mankind & enslaves us all just before “The Clockmaker’s Intention” heavily bases it’s subject matter around the S-Town podcast.

Chris & company pull inspiration from the thrash subgenre during “Riddance” while the title track reads as a jab towards the Trump administration since literally everyone who’s a part of it represents the song’s message: Greedily doing everything they can to maintain power. “The Unobtainable Sleep” was a poetically dark choice of a single telling a story about pursuing serenity through death & after “Kobayashi Maru” bases itself around the fictional training exercise from the Star Trek franchise, “Irene” rounds it all out with an acoustic outro singing about Empress Irene of Athens.

Looking to raise the stakes with a revitalized lineup, Byzantine puts all of their chips on the table during Harbingers now that they have much more insight on what they needed to do to really make a push after many fumbles they’ve encountered during their career spanning a quarter of a century for this conceptual opus revolving around a maternal ruler. It marks a significant shift in the thrash/groove metal & metalcore outfit’s process testifying their resilience & creative evolution as a unit far enough where those in the metal community who’ve been sleeping on the Lamb of God affiliates all this time will finally be awoken.

Score: 4/5

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