SOME LOVE FOR BYZANTINE!

I thought I was the last living blogger to give a shit about now-defunct West Virginia progressive metallers Byzantine. Not so! NoCleanSinging.com’s “MadIsraeli” recently put together a Byzantine career retrospective covering all three of their albums, complete with YouTube embeds of a few choice songs and, naturally, his own commentary. If you’re familiar with Byzantine, get familiar right quick; they’re one of those overlooked bands that didn’t get nearly enough love due simply to time and circumstance (wrong time, wrong place).

So what are Byzantine up to these days? The band reformed for a series of shows in 2010 around their home state after breaking up in 2008; I’m still waiting for them to come up to NYC. Ex-guitarist Tony Rohrbaugh recently released a solo instrumental album which you should most certainly check out; it doesn’t sound like Byzantine, but you can definitely tell one of the dudes from Byzantine wrote and plays on it, if that makes sense. And that’s about it. I’m just trying to do my part to make sure Byzantine’s legacy isn’t lost from the metal history books.

-VN