Right from the very start -- which, for all intents purposes, was signaled by their 2004 debut album, The Fundamental Component -- West Virginia's Byzantine were doing their chosen name justice by serving up a veritable smorgasbord of existing musical styles, torn asunder and reconstructed in sometimes curious, often startling new ways. For the most part, though, the resulting Frankenstein owed most of its body parts to the groove-laden work of Pantera, the tricky time signatures of Meshuggah, and the bandmembers' own thrash and death metal past lives (see prime examples "Stick Figure" and "My New Casket"). But, even at this early stage, Byzantine were already trying to break away from these dominant influences, and their best efforts -- including "Hatfield," "Sin Remover," "The Devil's Arithmetic," and the amusingly named, "The Filth of Our Underlings" (which literally sounded like Rush, at times) -- were usually characterized by unexpected dynamic shifts, unveiling truly progressive and exploratory melodic passages. Alas, much of the remaining material -- though rife with sporadic bright spots -- seemed torn by the gravitational pull of two, very distinct eras in the evolution of heavy metal: the fast-emerging metalcore movement and the nu metal fashion plate it was dethroning (although Byzantine never actually resorted to rapping). Thus, amid all of their other creative ambitions, the group couldn't resist tinkering with the hard/soft textures and harsh/clean vocals typical of the former on "Stoning Judas" and "Kill Chain," nor the vestigial rhythmic and atonal devices of the latter on "Slipping on Noise" and "Brundlefly" -- ultimately to distraction. Consequently, The Fundamental Component is generally viewed as Byzantine's least consistent and focused album, but that hasn't stopped die-hard fans from championing it for those very same reasons, and, in any case, it's quite a strong statement for a brand new band. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide
Charles Fisher (Producer), Charles Fisher (Engineer), Charles Fisher (Mixing), Louie Teran (Mastering), Jeffrey Ellis (Vocals), Matt Green (Vocals), Kristin Callahan (Photography), Byzantine (Arranger), Byzantine (Producer), Anthony Clarkson (Design), Anthony Clarkson (Layout Design), Matt Wolfe (Percussion), Matt Wolfe (Drums)
Album was recorded at 101 Productions, which is located inside an active daycare school called Little Kidz. The studio used to be one of the classrooms.
3 months were spent recording, mixing and mastering.
The band had Jeff Ellis, who is a lifelong friend of OJ's, and also the singer for the Soft rockjam bandGuinness Clarke's Wine, do guest vocals on "My New Casket", "The Devil's Arithmetic" and "The Filth of Our Underlings".
They Also had Matt Greene, who was the singer for Apparatus, sing the chorus on "Stoning Judas". Apparatus was the band of the Engineer / Producer Aaron Fisher.
For the guitar sound, they borrowed a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier head from Tim Watson, guitarist of local faves A Place of Solace.
Tony played rhythm tracks on "Stoning Judas", "My New Casket", "Kill Chain", "Hatfield", "Brundlefly" and "Stick Figure".
OJ played rhythm tracks on "The Filth of Our Underlings", "The Devil's Arithmetic", "Slipping on Noise" and "Sin Remover".
This was the first recording that Byzantine used a click track with. Wolfe first didn't like it and then ended up not wanting to play without it. It tightened up the recording a lot.
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