Customer Reviews

& They Shall Take Up Serpents

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this CD the day it came out, from a Best Buy deep in the heart of Texas. This is a band that deserves your respect because they live and breathe metal and they always have. This is a band to root for...they've quit jobs, slept on floors, drove all night across country...because they love to play metal for those who love to hear it, anytime, and anywhere.

Regardless of who you think they sound like a mix of...they are a rock-solid NWOAHM act with a unique lyrical perspective (who else incorporates the culture of their home state so well, without an ounce of cheese?) These guys are proud of their roots in West Virginia and pour every ounce of pride and energy they have into pummeling you. That's a good thing.

As for the musicians...Tony Rohrbough has been woodshedding his chops since an early age. He's emerged as a mutant hybrid of Alex Skolnick and Steve Vai...and applied those influences to an extreme new form of metal. OJ can pull off any combination of screams/growls/bellows as well as sing, and is a hell of a rhythm player. It fits with the music. These guys played with a drum machine at countless gigs because they couldn't find a human to play the parts accurately! The current line-up is a precision metal, umm, machine.

"Jeremiad" is the obvious single on this one, and probably their strongest track to date. One of the gripes I've heard is that there are a few songs on this album that aren't quite as manic as on their debut "The Fundamental Component." Chalk it up to growth in songwriting and the desire not to make the same record twice. Regardless, this album is still a joyride of the brutal new american metal.

Buy it.

It's bands like Byzantine that deserve a lot of credit for keeping the American metal industry's sound unique and multi-faceted. In a day and age where the commonality of metalcore sound, to the calibur of Killswitch Engage and As I Lay Dying, and hardcore bands, like Hatebreed, has become over blown and greatly overdone, it is bands like this that give us something to listen to. At first listen, "The Fundamental Component" made me think that I wasted my money. After awile, I began to like it more and more because of how technical it was and how Byzantine had this uncommon and intriguing sound to its work. Their newest creation, "And They Shall Take Up Serpents", continues their use of this interesting sound and it even moves and sounds much better than the last.

Occasionally, you will hear a few new sounds within their very well written tracklist. These include bongo drums, a piano, and some acoustic work, and they add more of a flavor to the album. Still, the time signature changes and technicality of the songwriting are well planned and, at times, the album has more brutality to it than the last one. They even revived one of their older tracks on the CD (Jeremiad) along with the new tracklist. Overall, I think Byzantine has the ability to be a band that can consistantly write a good record that many will never look at or hear. I would prefer to keep their work in my back pocket, rather than have them get big and turn to crap in a hurry. If you are a fan of metal, buy this album along with the other. Byzantine is proving not to disappoint, at least they don't disappoint me.

quite frankly i dont know how anyone thinks this sounds anything like pantera. the guys who think it does need to clean out their ears. im a massive pantera fan and this is completely different, i love this stuff. this music is pretty original compared to most bands like it. the riffs are amazing, and the singer has an awesome voice. this is proper metal. amazing album.

I wish people would lighten up a bit...This Is METAL were talking about...Right?

OK, as I understand it LOG, whom I like simply because they kick it and are NOT afraid to shred (lead axe breaks), helped these guys - GOOD!

This band rocks, plain and simple. At times there first CD is hard to digest (call it technial metal if you want - I'm not one who likes music labels such as 80's, 90's, Nu....ect.) But, once you figgure out the words enough to understand them and get used to very heavy grooves that contain many cool changes you (I hope) will really like the guitar work as it is top notch.

If you don't like wild heavy metal with the shed machine turned to 10...don't bother listening to or bashing this type of metal.


33 years of rock behind me and not stoppin' for anything or anybody - JRK

Byzantine is a band with a lot of talent and has generally flown under the radar of the metal scene, in my opinion. That's not to say that this band is perfect or that their aren't better bands, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out this band can actually play their instruments and write fairly decent, all be it not tremendously groundbreaking, songs.

Byzantine seem to have shed their more "tech" aspect that they had on "The Fundamental Component" for a much more standard southern-tinged metal record (this isn't a death metal record like I've seen mentioned here). But what Byzantine lacks in the "tech" department this time around, they make up for with outstandingly improved guitar work (see Justicia) and much more experimentation with things such as piano work (see Five Faces Of Madness), some slight acoustic work (see Redneck War) and southern influenced vocal work (see Temporary Temples and Redneck War) although admittedly at times the southern crooning sounds a little...well, cheesy, for the lack of a better word. Most of the album however is spent with a vocal attack that is akin to the band Hell Within with a few lower growls scattered here and there. The band chugs a long at a pace that is not necessarily thrashy but not necessarily breakdown heavy either, but really the highlight of the album altogether is the guitar leads and solos the color the entire album.

Collectively, this is a much more ambitious effort on Byzantine's part. Highlight tracks include "Five Faces Of Madness," "Justicia," and "Take Up Serpants." For fans of Lamb Of God, Hell Within, and A Life Once Lost.

The sophmore album kicks ass. It's hard and straight to the point. Byzantine kicks ass and they put on one of the best shows around. See them live if at all possible. O.J., Tony, Wolfe, and Skip will amaze you with stage presence and hard ass metal.

You guys don't know anything about talent. Go and listen to your As I Lay Dying albums and tell me this album is metalcore. This album is absolutely pulverizing in the most brutal of manners. Certainly a very talented band that is very undercredited. Byzantine Rules!

This band has real potential. They are an extremely tight outfit. They have unique ideas and the ability to execute them successfully. If you like heavy music that has some purpose other than just being loud and fast, then these guys are for you. If all you like is synchronized noise, stick with your Cannibal Corpse CDs.

No, I have no affiliation with the band. Hell, I had not even heard of them until today. That's disappointing -- so many great bands out there, such as this one, who can't get the recognition they deserve because your local radio station is too busy playing the latest from Foo Fighters and Green Day.

Again, if you like really heavy music with a sense of melody, get this CD.

If you don't own this, you are missing out. This band is a cross between Dream Theatre, Prong, Meshuggah and S.O.D. Hey..............Is that legal? Identity crisis and all, you must check this band out. Byzantine are catchy, tight, quick, and have tons of talent.

I don't listen to LoG, Shadow's, or any Massmetal, or any NWOSHM - all bands that do what they do well but aren't doing anything that interesting or new. But these f'in rednecks sound so fresh and catchy that I cannot stop spinning this amazingly well-written slab.

Meshuggah, dillinger, and candiria are genius innovators but not bands I listen to every day cause they're so extreme. Byzantine is a band that finds that beautiful middle ground between galloping, chugging groove and prog experimentation, like the mean of extremity between Soilent and COC. Little flourishes, intros, outros and serene breaks, combined with that perfect rhythmic touch really expose these guys' songwriting flair and skills and push them into originality.

Some tech-trash moments remind of the late great Coroner. The hearty dose of Southern revolutionary campfire out-Souths Mastodon which is more driven with wyld-eyed tech-barrage. Classick leads crystalize a melancholic melodic heaven. And the vocals. Technical, emotional diversity applied with class and lyrical depth.

The Byz have carved out a nice wound for theyselves that balances intellect and viscera, classic and modern, like no band I've heard in a while. Potent, sophisticated, and sick, .....Serpents goes down like a well-aged whiskey with a fatty chaser. Here's to one long and Justicial career, that outlasts and destroys trends and tags, with the eventual audience of another Great Southern Trendkill haha.