After releasing their latest album, ‘The Cicada Tree‘, last year to critical acclaim, BYZANTINE is now launching a new video for the record’s title track! Directed by Holly Mollohan / Screaming Butterfly Entertainment, the clip for “The Cicada Tree” can be seen below.
Vocalist/Guitarist Chris “OJ” Ojeda comments: “Over the course of our last few albums, we have really been trying to stretch our songwriting abilities and push past any limitations set upon ourselves. The title track, ‘The Cicada Tree’, is a great representation of our band at this point in our discography. We try to always write from the heart and with purpose. This song has one of the deeper meanings on our last album, symbolizing our 17 years as a band and our slow but steady evolution as an underground artist.”
To state that ‘The Cicada Tree‘ is “classic BYZANTINE” in no way implies that this is an album solely rooted in the band’s past. Certainly, all of the hallmarks that have made their sound so compelling for close to two decades are present and correct: muscular yet lithe riffs and fluid leads play against gripping, dynamic and at times unpredictable rhythms, while rich melodies and lyrics that are both involved and intelligent wind their way through every track. But, once more, the groove metal unit has continued their steady evolution – the interplay between their members organic and natural, imbuing the record’s sixty-two-minute running time with a freshness and urgency. Founding member Chris “OJ” Ojeda states, “The first few albums, you’re trying to find your sound, and sometimes you tend to not see the forest for the trees. Now, on album number six, it seems a calmness took hold during the songwriting process, possibly from just having more confidence in our sound. At this point, our fans expect us to experiment and push our boundaries, which is an extremely liberating feeling.”
