BYZANTINE REUNITE, ARE WRITING A NEW ALBUM AND LAUNCH A KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN!

Byzantine broke up before their time, mere days after the release of their magnum opus Oblivion Beckons. I cried.

But today there are so many good things to report that I can barely contain my excitement! To start, Byzantine are recording a new record — jubilation! They’re doing it with the “definitive” Byzantine lineup, and yes, that includes ex-departed guitarist Tony Rohrbough — double jubilation! And to top it all off they’re financing the whole thing themselves via Kickstarter, so you — YOU! — can donate to the cause and get something cool back in return while you’re at it.

Here’s the official statement from the band via their Facebook page:

Byzantine officially reunites with “definitive” lineup. New album to be released in 2012.

West Virginia’s Byzantine has decided to announce a reformation of the band almost 4 years to the day since their last album; “Oblivion Beckons” was released. The group’s 2012 lineup is as follows:

Chris Ojeda: Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Tony Rohrbough: Lead Guitar
Michael Cromer: Bass Guitar
Matt Wolfe: Drums

As singer/songwriter Chris Ojeda states, “We’ve all kept in contact through the past few years and have worked on each other’s projects as well. With our guitarist Tony moving back to WV from NC, we decided it would be a perfect opportunity to hang out again and jam. Before we knew it, we were tossing around riffs and song ideas and realized we had what seemed to be the foundation for a pretty kick ass Byzantine album.”
Since Byzantine is no longer tied to any record company, the band has decided to finance the recording of their 4th CD independently. The band will record most of the music themselves alongside engineer/producer and Gizmachi guitarist Jason Hannon of 7 over 8 Studios. Vocal tracking will be handled by Byzantine’s longtime engineer Aaron Fisher at 101 Studios. Ojeda states that no time frame has been set for the release and no show dates have been set. Ojeda states, “We are not focusing on playing live just yet. We all still live pretty far away from each other and have family and career obligations to meet. Our focus right now is to put together a real nice collection of songs that we and our fans can be proud of. Doing it on a smaller budget will be a little harder but it will be fun to take our time and be able to be creative on our own terms.”
In the meantime, Byzantine has decided to enlist the help of kickstarter.com for the financing of the album. Kickstarter is the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects. It will allow the fans of Byzantine to help back the release of their new album through donations. Donations will be set up on a tier program and each tier will have incentives packages such as signed CD’s, back stage passes, official sheet music and early digital downloads, etc. Information on how to help Byzantine finance their new album can be found at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/332269135/split-the-bar-tab-for-the-next-byzantine-album-due

Sweet news, nah???

The more expensive packages they’re offering on their Kickstarter don’t really seem to offer enough to make the price tags worth it, but that’s not stopping me from donating at a lower level anyway right now. New Byzantine music is a must — I’ve been waiting four years for this! — and the fact that they’ve got Rohrbough back in the band is just absolutely excellent. Best of luck, guys! Uncle Neilstein is here to help if you need anything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfsv_kl09Ao

-VN

Thanks: James Keglor, Israel Flanders and Q