| CD REVIEW Halcyon Way |
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Band : Halcyon Way Thanks to Nightmare Records jumping onto the iPool bandwagon to promote their material, we at Concrete Web were lucky enough to download a copy of this Atlanta (Georgia) based Progressive Heavy Metal outfit's 2008 debut album A Manifesto For Domination (co-produced and mastered by James Murphy of Testament, Death and Obituary fame), and post a review for that (done by a colleague of mine) in November of last year (2009, that is!). Summarily as that review was in as much as the band's history was involved, I'll pretend I didn't even read that! Halcyon Way was founded by lead guitarist/ backing vocalist/ additional programming provider (the occasional bit of keyboard, either in atmospheric form, piano tonalities, or surprising synth line) Jon Bodan (started playing some 15 years ago in popular Atlanta based Death Metal act Final Judgement) with lead singer Sean Shields, bassist Glen Williams, and drummer Aabron Eturralde. Along the way, he added rhythm guitarist/ backing vocalist Zane Matthews (known previously as singer/ bassist for Abwhore for the 6 years prior to joining HW, and as touring singer for Power Metal legend Cauldron Born), replaced the rhythm section for bassist/ harsh backing vocalist Kris Maltenieks (has a Black Metal background) and drummer Ernie Toran (multi-influenced, he's also the band's maker of films as used on the band's tours), and eventually also replaced his lead singer with Steve Braun (known from Italian (Huh!?) band Ashent) in 2009. Meaning the band's previous releases (starting with 4-track Jan. 2002 demo Blind Eyes To The Sky, there was also a 3-track EP self-released in Sept. 2004 prior to the debut album) were all with the old singer. Along the way the band shared stages with the likes of Helloween, Strapping Young Lad, Now as I couldn't find any samples of the old album on Amazon.com, and the two samples posted at myspace.com/halcyonway were both cut to exclude vocals, I cannot say how Steve compares to Sean, but what I càn say is that his high-pitched voice has a wacky signature which definitely sets the band apart from the run-of-the-mill! Thanks to the band's mixing of harsher influences into their otherwize very melodic Progressive Heavy Metal (nice lead guitar parts goin' on all the time), the occasional keyboard (piano here, atmospherics there, some synth sounds elsewhere) additions, and thanks to the frequent (clean) backings (the occasional harsher backings were somehow restricted to the first 4 songs), the end result is a very enjoyable whole, which I've been reluctant to write about for the last week...as finishing a review is always somewhat of a separation. I lóve this band, and I consider their new album as a must-have for any fan of the better Progressive Heavy Metal genre. One reason more to buy the album: it features a vocal guest appearance by Pamela Moore (yep, “Sister Mary” from Queensrÿche's Operation Mindcrime) at the end of the track “”Icon Of Resolution”! 98/100 Tony. |