{"id":72744,"date":"2018-08-03T00:00:54","date_gmt":"2018-08-03T00:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=72744"},"modified":"2018-09-18T14:29:26","modified_gmt":"2018-09-18T14:29:26","slug":"album-review-halcyon-way-bloody-but-unbowed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-halcyon-way-bloody-but-unbowed\/","title":{"rendered":"HALCYON WAY – Bloody But Unbowed (2018) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

HALCYON WAY
Bloody But Unbowed<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nAgonia (2018)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Steve Braun (vocals), Jon Bodan (lead guitars, backing vocals and programming), Max Eve (rhythm guitars), Skyler Moore (bass and backing vocals) and Aaron Baumoel (drums) are the unit behind the name Halcyon Way; an Atlanta, Georgia-based band that has toiled since the early 2000s, releasing a brace of EPs and prior to this full-length a trio of albums.<\/p>\n

Halcyon Way is thinking man\u2019s metal. Progressive, melodic, technical, and yet accessible by design, all is delivered with clean-cut precision as Braun\u2019s effortless vocal soars spiral above what is essentially a dark-edged, crisp sound which remains hard to pigeon-hole.<\/p>\n

Yep, it\u2019s very much steely metal; but I could easily imagine this sort of expression emerging in the late 80s or early 90s, a time when metalheads were suddenly appreciating Megadeth<\/a>, Metal Church etc., as much as, say, King\u2019s X or Skid Row. Strong flecks of variety leak into an often pummelling vibe built upon Bodan\u2019s leads and those effective skin slaps from Baumoel.<\/p>\n

The title track, which surges after a short introduction, epitomises the spirit and style of this grandiose band. \u201cWe will never give up… we will never give in\u201d<\/em> barks Braun, the whole anthemic gloss dripping with a swagger and steel. It\u2019s neither thrash, power metal or straight up metal; great booming, guttural chants emerge over a fast-paced delivery, but there\u2019s a nifty, almost sweet, er… Michael Sweet (Stryper) smoothness.<\/p>\n

Then \u2018Blame\u2019 comes hammering with such intensity and density. Oddly, I hear comparisons with Stryper at their heaviest, the band creating such complex structures without befuddling. At times, it\u2019s like throwing Vince Neil (M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce<\/a>) circa 1993 in with Dream Theater, and yet the weight remains throughout. There\u2019s something contemporary about the affair, too; the band\u2019s sudden shift to a lower paced cackle leans towards Faith No More with its innovation, and then we\u2019re off on a silky prog metal streak of ascending leads and strong drum work.<\/p>\n

\u2018Slaves To Silicon\u2019 marries cold steel progression again with that very metallic trudge complete with deathlier vocal churns. \u2018Superpredator\u2019 is drenched in metallic embellishments, meanwhile, the sneaking guitar work dragging into a moody thrash trudge. There\u2019s flickers of Voivod in the angular moments maybe, or is that a pounding Skid Row with the menace?<\/p>\n

The snappy \u2018Primal Scream\u2019 ups the ante as a super-charged hammer to the skull, while \u2018Ten Thousand Ways\u2019 builds on a molten metal gallop. Damn, I\u2019m again transported back to the mid-90s when some seriously cool bands existed, but didn\u2019t get a look due to the grunge invasion. Everything about this album smokes; the vocal power, the rhythmic precision, the jarring yet easily accessible riffs and a drum that kicks harder than a steel mule.<\/p>\n

Sure, there\u2019s a grey haze over proceedings. Halcyon Way are somewhat humourless, and yet widely appealing; not vastly complex, and yet producing vast soundscapes of heavyweight juxtapositions that fit in nowhere just because of their coolness. \u2018The Church Of Me\u2019 features another devilish riff and classy, infectious chorus, while \u2018Cast Another Stone\u2019 is even heavier \u2013 leaning towards Nevermore with that polished yet dark and dynamic pulverisation, but in Braun I hear Sebastian Bach at times. \u2018Crowned In Violence\u2019 brings those deathlier aesthetics to the fore again, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am master of shadows… you bow down to me\u201d<\/em> moans Braun before another percussive hammer attack comes like a freezing wave, the rising melodies breaking and bursting out of the dense metallic layers. \u2018Burning The Summit\u2019 provides similar dismal trudges before its bony gallop, prior to the slow build of \u2018Desolate\u2019 coming with clattering pistons. The whole machine snarls with a polished Megadeth sort of technicality mixed with a Symphony X sort of drive.<\/p>\n

Bloody But Unbowed<\/em> leaves me bloody and bowing to its aloof and swaggering nature; being a metal record that at times may appear just too confident and clattering to appeal to the masses, this is why I\u2019m reminiscing about the joys of early to mid-90s metal creations that were just too good to be widely lauded. Halcyon Way has always been a force and will remain so, however, whatever grey planet it inhabits and conquers.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HALCYON WAYBloody But Unbowed Agonia (2018)Rating: 8.5\/10 Steve Braun (vocals), Jon Bodan (lead guitars, backing vocals and programming), Max Eve (rhythm guitars), Skyler Moore (bass and backing vocals) and Aaron Baumoel (drums) are the unit behind the name Halcyon Way; an Atlanta, Georgia-based band that has toiled since the early 2000s, releasing a brace of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1467],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-halcyon-way"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72744"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72747,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72744\/revisions\/72747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}