Byzantine recently confirmed that they will be releasing The Cicada Tree on July 28th via Metal Blade Records, and the first official video has made its way online. The ‘New Ways to Bear Witness’ video, not only features a cameo by Skeletonwitch‘s Dustin Boltjes, but resulted in Chris “OJ” Ojeda suffering a concussion. He explains: “So, we came up with an idea of having our old drummer do a cameo appearance in the music video. Matt Wolfe left the band right before we signed with Metal Blade and had occupied the drum seat for the last 12 years. We felt it was a perfect opportunity to let fans know that we still love Matt and he’s still welcome and important to our band. What’s the best way to have an ousted band member make a cameo? To hit me with a vehicle, of course!
We set up the scene and did about 5 or 6 takes of Wolfe hitting me with the vehicle and me rolling off the vehicle. I didn’t know until we wrapped shooting the next day that something was wrong and had a very hard time driving home. I contacted an ER doctor friend of mine who told me I needed to come see him ASAP. After a CT Scan and an EKG, he let me know I had a standard sports type concussion from repeatedly hitting my head during the video shoot. I got 3 days off work and a cool story out of it! Rock!”

Enjoy the ‘New Ways to Bear Witness’ video below, and if you love it as much as we do, pre-order The Cicada Tree today! Nobody beats the Byz!