One of the more underrated acts spawned during the New Wave of American Heavy Metal movement of late '90s/early 2000s, Byzantine's 2004 debut, The Fundamental Component, delivered an explosive amalgam of neck-snapping thrash and progressive groove metal. The band continued to evolve on subsequent efforts like Oblivion Beckons (2008), To Release Is to Resolve (2015), The Cicada Tree (2017), and the Black Sea Codex EP (2022), which trafficked in multiple heavy metal subgenres.
As the third millennium got under way, heavy metal fans finally began emerging from their grunge fall...