American metallers from Atlanta (GA), and Agonia Records recent signees, HALCYON WAY, announce details of their fourth studio album, successor to Billboard-charting 'Conquer' from 2014. The new record is titled 'Bloody But Unbowed' and is set to be released on Agonia on the 3rd of August worldwide.
HALCYON WAY's sound cannot be neatly slotted into any sub-category of metal. It can be described as heavy, catchy, technical, progressive and above all, focused on strong songcraft. From Megadeth to Dream Theater, to Testament and Chimaira - HALCYON WAY draws influences & inspiration from many metal bands. With a magnitude of catchy hooks, vocal harmonies a la King’s X or Stryper, and heavy, technical, yet ultimately accessible instrumentation, 'Bloody But Unbowed' is sure to please fans of many forms of metal. Be that modern, power, thrash and progressive metal - but also hard rock fans. Crammed full of huge anthemic choruses, shredding solos, and brutal riffs, this release checks off all the boxes.
'Bloody But Unbowed' was recorded, mixed and mastered by Mark Lewis (Whitechapel, Trivium, Bad Wolves, Death Angel) and is replete with artwork from Travis Smith (Opeth, Overkill, Death, Iced Earth). The album boasts a very special appearance of 'The Nailhead Choir', with many guest names to be revealed soon. HALCYON WAY is currently filming a music video for the lead single 'Blame', which is expected to drop early June together with pre-orders.
The band commented: '“We are beyond excited to finally unleash this beast upon everyone. This is by far our heaviest album, but it also has the biggest choruses, and it’s just the right next step in our evolution as a band. It was a difficult album to write and put over the finish line, and we cannot wait to have everyone hear it. From the songs to the production to the art, we think all our fans are going to absolutely love it, and when people that haven’t heard Halcyon Way before get a taste, they’re going to be like ‘where has this band been my whole life?''.
Tracklisting:
1. Devolutionize
2. Bloody But Unbowed
3. Blame
4. Slaves To Silicon
5. Superpredator
6. Primal Scream
7. Ten Thousand Ways
8. The Church Of Me
9. Cast Another Stone
10. Crowned In Violence
11. Burning The Summit
12. Desolate
+ European edition bonus tracks:
13. Insufferable
14. Stand For Something
Album formats:
- Digipack CD.
- Black LP.
- Digital.
HALCYON WAY is the ultimate example of blue-collar work ethic, self-reliant bootstrapping, and hard work & perseverance in spite of nearly insurmountable odds. This award winning band has released four studio albums worldwide through Nightmare Records/Sony RED, and most recently via Massacre Records, and has performed on 4 continents (and about 20 countries and counting), extensively touring with the likes of Saxon, Sabaton, Queensryche, Fates Warning, Fozzy, Skid Row, U.D.O. and Delain. Most recently, HALCYON WAY finished a month-long European tour with Angra & Geoff Tate’s Operation: Mindcrime, and is gearing up to hit the road again in support of their new album 'Bloody But Unbowed'.
ONLINE
LINEUP
Steve Braun - vocals
Jon Bodan - lead guitars, backing vocals, programming
Max Eve - rhythm guitars
Skyler Moore - bass, backing vocals
Aaron Baumoel - drums
BIOGRAPHY
Based in Atlanta, Georgia and founded in 2001, Halcyon Way is the ultimate example of blue-collar work ethic, self-reliant bootstrapping, and hard work & perseverance in spite of nearly insurmountable odds. The band has released three albums worldwide through Nightmare Records/Sony RED, performed in a dozen countries and counting, and is preparing to unleash their 4th record in early 2014.
Halcyon Way’s sound cannot be neatly slotted into any sub-category of metal; but it can be described as heavy, catchy, technical, and above all, focused on mature songcraft. The band draws influences & inspiration from many metal bands from Megadeth to Dream Theater to Testament to Chimaira. The focus of the songwriting is on catchy hooks, vocal harmonies a la King’s X or Stryper, and on heavy, technical, but ultimately accessible instrumentation. Although these are many disparate influences, the net result is a brand of metal that is immediately familiar and comfortable to the listener, yet strangely hard to define.
In 2008, the band released their debut album on Nightmare Records/Koch Entertainment entitled A Manifesto For Domination. The CD was released to rave reviews, and the album was produced by Jon Bodan and James Murphy (formerly of the band Testament), and mixed by German producer Lasse Lammert (known for his work with Alestorm, Gloryhammer, and many other European metal bands).
In 2009, Halcyon Way began tracking the follow up record, Building The Towers. This time the band upped the ante in all respects, most notably with the acquisition of vocalist Steve Braun, formerly of Lion Music’s Italy-based Ashent. In addition, the band enlisted former Black Label Society drummer Mike Froedge to engineer the drum tracks in his studio, had Pamela Moore (“Sister Mary” from the legendary Operation:Mindcrime album by Queensryche) guest on 5 tracks, and brought the most sought after artist in heavy metal, Travis Smith, onto the team to create the artwork. Lasse Lammert was again tapped to not only mix and master the album, but to co-produce it alongside Jon. The album was released to amazing reviews in October of 2010.
In the midst of the mixdown for Building The Towers, the band received its first opportunity to tour overseas, thanks to long-time friend and supporter Rich Ward of Fozzy/Stuck Mojo. The band was able to travel to the United Kingdom for a tour with Fozzy, and played to sold out shows throughout the UK. This immediately led to the formation of the Halcyon Way UK Street Team, whose fanatical members have tattooed HW logos and lyrics upon themselves. The tour also led to a large amount of international press, and the HW flag was officially planted overseas.
Upon the successful completion of this tour, Halcyon Way was invited to do a full European tour with the resurgent, million-album-selling Stuck Mojo, and the band immediately accepted this opportunity. The tour was planned in the ensuing months, and at this time, disaster struck in true “Behind The Music” fashion. Two weeks before the band was scheduled to embark upon this 3-week tour, and only 5 days before Building The Towers was to be officially released, guitarist Jon Bodan was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Lymphoma. As a result, the tour was cancelled so he could begin aggressive treatment.
The band took most of 2011 off from the live circuit while Jon was in chemotherapy treatment, with the exception of several high-profile shows that had already been committed to by the band. However, this did not stop the band from releasing IndoctriNation, getting Building The Towers successfully licensed to Microsoft for the RockBand game franchise, and generally keeping the band in the public eye.
IndoctriNation had been written and recorded during the Building The Towers sessions, with the plan to release it as the third Halcyon Way album after the Building The Towers touring cycle had ended. Since the band was going to be “off the radar” from a live standpoint for a while, it was decided that the release of IndoctriNation would be moved up to late 2011. It was again mixed & mastered by Lasse Lammert, and Travis Smith was again tapped to handle the artwork.
In a stroke of irony, at about the same time as the new album released, Jon found out that he had been successful in his battle with cancer, and the band returned to live shows with a highly publicized and successful charity event benefitting cancer patients, and a headlining slot at the Pathfinder Metalfest III.
In spring of 2012, Halcyon Way embarked on their largest tour yet, a 17-date, 9-country stint in Europe & the UK with Dutch symphonic metal band Delain, playing to sold-out audiences across the Continent. After having been hand-picked by the management of Delain to support them on this important tour, the band did not disappoint, and picked up legions of new fans.
Upon returning to the US in May of 2012, the band began refining the material for their new album, and Jon traveled to Germany with drummer Ernie Topran to track the drums for the new CD. These sessions were completed in LSD Studios with long-time collaborator Lasse Lammert. This time produced entirely by Jon, and mixed and mastered again by Lasse, the new record is in mixdown at this time and should be released in first quarter 2014 and also released to the RockBand franchise.
The band also enlisted the acclaimed Los Angeles-based producer Seth Von Paulus to assist with vocal production. Seth is best known for his work with platinum-selling artists such as Christina Aguilera and Alicia Keys.
Never a band to sit on its hands, while completing the new album and having it mixed down, Halcyon Way was booked for a 2-week US/Canada tour in April of 2013 with the legendary U.D.O., the original voice of Accept, and this highly successful run introduced the band to thousands of new fans in theater-sized venues across the US & Canada. This tour was a trial by fire for the new addition to the HW camp, Max Eve on bass.
As soon as they returned from the road again, the band booked a video shoot in July of 2013 for the song “Web Of Lies”, which will appear on the new release. The video was World Premiered at the renowned ProgPower USA Festival in September 2013.
In addition, Halcyon Way went out on the largest tour of their career, a 24-show, 32-day US & Canada tour as direct support for the legendary Saxon, and their old friends in Fozzy. This tour helped Halcyon Way deliver their unique brand of metal to thousands of new fans across the entirety of the United States and Canada.
Hot on the heels of that tour, the band went out on the road again for 14 shows in support of the legendary progressive metal band Fates Warning, for their third tour of the US of the year.
These tours were designed to build awareness of Halcyon Way in preparation for the release of their fourth album, “Conquer”. This album shows immense growth and maturity in songwriting as they recount the struggles they have faced as a band and individually in the last few years. Make no mistake – this band has a chip on their shoulder and will not be denied.
Halcyon Way has built a reputation - brick by brick & stone by stone - as being a blue-collar, hard working band that will seize any opportunity given them, and wring it for all it's worth. The band has accomplished all of these things with no label support whatsoever. It has been due to the hard work, sacrifice, and dedication of the band’s members to succeed at all costs. Their “do what we need to do” attitude is making their name in the music industry, and a favorite of fans worldwide. You can see this for yourself as they take the stage and demand that you take notice.
DISCOGRAPHY
A Manifesto for Domination - 2008
Building the Towers - 2010
IndoctriNation - 2011
Conquer - 2014
Bloody But Unbowed - 2018