American metallers, Byzantine, are releasing their new album "Harbingers" on June 13 through Metal Blade Records.
According to the band's vocalist, Chris Ojeda, the cover was created by "Ashley Hoey, a mixed media artist from my hometown of Charleston, WV. Ashley has developed a very unique style of drawing her subjects with pencil and then combining actual clothing and jewelry to achieve a 3D aspect to her pieces. She solely focuses on female subjects. When we came up with the concept of having Irene of Athens, the first female ruler of the Byzantine empire, on our album cover, Ashley immediately came to mind."
The group decided to feature a representation of Irene of Athens because "focusing on the maternal side of power was a very intriguing change we thought we needed to make. Irene of Athens was a beautifully striking woman, but also very powerful. She actually had her son, Emperor Constantine blinded so he could no longer rule, which then gave her the throne over the empire. This was just a perfect story to wrap into a song and album cover. Nothing says 'Metal' like Abacination!"
"Harbingers" can be pre-ordered at https://www.metalblade.com/byzantine/
See more of Ashley Hoey's work at https://ashleyhoeyart.com/
Byzantine will be featured in the upcoming book "And Justice For Art- Ultimate Edition." Donate to the crowdfunding campaign to print the book at https://andjusticeforart.bigcartel.com/products
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