Here’s a fun fact: like 12-13 years ago, when I worked at Metal Maniacs, I created a fake one-man black metal band called Goatmancer. I used to run interviews with myself in my column for The Aquarian where I, as Etherial, the lone member of Goatmancer, would answer my own softball questions by ranting and raving about how anyone who ever wrote or even released music was prostituting their art and how the only thing that could ever really be pure was silence. So Goatmancer refused to make any music. It was a parody of some of the ridiculous stuff I was reading in the interviews with black metal bands I’d copy-edit, and when I started making sense with it I stopped. It was cute for a while.

The Goatmancer Records, which has just signed Johannes Lahti‘s new project Byron, has nothing to do with any of that, but the name reminded me. More important to the point here is that “Through the Eye of the Nightengale,” which is streaming at the bottom of this post, dooms the crap out of some NWOBHM shred, and is killer. I don’t know when the album’s coming or anything like that, but I dig the song and thought you might too. Simple as that.

And no, I don’t really think everyone who sells music as a product is prostituting their art. At least not until Bandcamp Friday — then the hustle is on.

From the PR wire:

Former members of CHURCH OF VOID, HORNA and BATTLELORE give life to BYRON, signing with THE GOATMANCER RECORDS

Soon after the Finnish heavy doom band Church Of Void ceased to exist in 2017, drummer Johannes Lahti, aka Byron V, started planning the release of few songs he had made during the years and were buried in the drawer. He had just joined the band Neon Angel and finished recording drums to their debut album “Neon Light District” (Sliptrick Records 2020) when he felt the time was right to get his songs to be heard. Enlightened by the realization of the few songs finally being pushed out, Johannes started composing more material in late 2019 and what started out as a studio project EP, first became two EPs and finally formed as a full-length album. A band called Byron was born.

The band, finally reaching its form in late 2020, prepares for the release of their debut album via Goatmancer Records and eagerly waits to play the songs live.

Byron is a melodic heavy metal band from Finland. Founded 2019 as a one-man studio project, now standing as a full-grown band, Byron mixes its eclectic sound with influences from various genres, such as occult rock and stoner/doom, topping it with themes and imagery of the arcane and the occult.

Byron’s debut album, “The Omega Evangelion” represents the birth of the band with tracks from different eras, bound together by a thematical line of endings and loss in various aspects, topped with Lovecraftian imagery. It is an eclectic serving of melodic heavy metal, moving from NWOBHM to occult rock and deeper into the gloomy depths of darker metal and back to stoner and doom, offering a sensation of beautifulness in decay, a beginning in every end. An evangelion of rebirth; of Alpha in Omega.

Johannes aka Byron V. says: “I’m extremely happy and excited with the collaboration of Byron and Goatmancer Records. To finally be able to release the debut album through a trustworthy and respectful label elevates this band again into a new level and into the reach of wider audience it deserves. Working this together with professionals like Gero from Argonauta (caring all marketing and distribution) and Oleksander from Grand Sounds, I cannot expect more than quality service and dedication in pushing the band and its career onwards. Releasing “The Omega Evangelion” and hopefully get to play the songs live is a perfect start for the new year.”

“THE OMEGA EVANGELION” is scheduled for an early 2021 release, more details soon!

Participants at “The Omega Evangelion” – sessions were:
Johanna Eteläkari, Christoffer Frylmark: Vocals
Jaakko Puusaari, Jyri Vahvanen: Guitars
Johannes Lahti: Bass, guitar, drums, piano
+ Magus Corvus: Guest vocals

Live line-up TBA

https://www.facebook.com/byronfinland
https://byronfinland.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TheGoatmancer
https://www.thegoatmancer.com/

Byron, “Through the Eye of the Nightengale”