Here are two videos that caught my eyes and ears this morning, one from an old favorite of this site, one from some surprising newcomers.
BYZANTINE
The old favorites are West Virginia’s Byzantine, whose new album To Release Is To Resolve, to no one’s surprise, is fantastic (and reviewed here for us by TheMadIsraeli). Two days ago Billboard premiered a video for the song “The Agonies” off the new album, but I only caught up with it today.
Byzantine’s Chris “OJ” Ojeda told Billboard that the black-and-white video was filmed to catch the look and feel of Overkill’s 1989 video for “Elimination” (which you can view here). The price they paid for that was locating the shoot in a Charleston, W.V. warehouse where the temperature was about 40 degrees.
The video, directed by Holly Siders and produced by Screaming Butterfly Entertainment, looks great, and honestly, I’ll take this song over “Elimination” any day of the week. It’s already on our list of candidates for 2015’s most infectious songs. Get ready to be thrashed — and definitely prepare for headbanging.
https://www.facebook.com/Byzantinewv
http://www.byzantinemetal.com/
SIRIUN
Siriun are from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and last November they released their debut album In Chaos We Trust. Actually, only two of the musicians on the album are from Brazil — the band’s founder, guitarist/vocalist Alexandre Castellan, and bass-player Hugo Machado. The well-known Kevin Talley provided the drumming.
Two days ago the band premiered an animated video for the song “Transmutation”. The video was made by Dark Tranquillity guitarist Niklas Sundin (Cabin Fever Media), and it’s a true feast for the eyes. The song is an eye-opener, too. It’s a high-voltage jolt of death/thrash that includes some catchy melodic hooks and a couple of very cool guitar solos to go along with the spine-rupturing grooves and bestial vocal tirades.
Based on this song, In Chaos We Trust definitely seems worth exploring further. It’s available through the links below.
http://www.siriunband.com
http://siriun.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/siriunband
8 Responses to “VIDEOGRAPHY: BYZANTINE AND SIRIUN”
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Hey man, I’m visiting Seattle for two weeks and I was wondering if you could recommend some heavy metal bars? I’ve heard the Lava Lounge is good but I mean a nice dark place with string drink that blasts metal 24/7. Sorry it’s off topic but hope you can suggest somewhere.
Cheers,
TT
No problem. My favorite place is Highline, which is run by Dylan Desmond from Bell Witch. Cool bar and cool people (it’s a music venue too). And if you are interested in any shows, I try to keep this calendar page up to date:
https://www.nocleansinging.com/nw-metal-calendar/
Goddamn, that Byzantine track is catchier than malaria in medieval Italy.
What a vivid metaphor! Bravo!
A common theme that’s been showing up in the reading I’ve been doing for my Holy Roman Empire history class. Italian summer used to be as deadly for Central Europeans as Russian winter.
And suddenly, a year of Academic Decathlon comes rushing back.
Two great videos. Siriun is going for only 3 USD on bandcamp, so I’d be a fool not to. It’s also one of the most intriguing of these semi-animated videos I’ve seen.
“Transmutation” is a killer track 🙂