HALCYON WAY - Conquer

August 14, 2014, 9 years ago

(Nightmare Records)

By Kelley Simms

Rating: 8.0

review heavy metal halcyon way

HALCYON WAY - Conquer

Modern prog metal flag-bearers Halcyon Way are poised to climb to the next level with its third full length album, Conquer. The Atlanta quintet delivers 12 high-caliber songs decorated with catchy choruses, huge hooks, chugging riffs and soaring vocal harmonies. The band’s sound is made up of a hearty mix of progressive and thrash metal, drawn from influences of bands such as Dream Theater, early Queensrÿche, Nevermore and Testament, to name just a few. The title track opens the CD with an innovative fade-in tribal drum pattern, which is soon met with a barrage of crunchy riffs and melodic harmonies. Leadoff single and video, “Web Of Lies.” sums up the band’s overall sound fairly well. From the opening crushing riffs, to the progressive hooks, to the melodic vocal harmonies, it’s easy to tell that this is the band’s modus operandi throughout the rest of the album. Steve Braun is a superior vocalist, sounding like a cross between Dream Theater’s James LaBrie and Stryper’s Michael Sweet. The dynamic of Braun’s melodic clean vocal harmonies mixed with gang chant death growls supplied by guitarist Jon Bodan and bassist Skyler Moore, are wonderfully combined on the majority of the tracks. It’s been a hard-fought 13-year battle for their underground status and the band has endured some major setbacks, including Bodan’s bout with cancer in 2010. On Conquer, it’s obvious Halcyon Way has matured musically compared to its previous releases, not to mention the spot-on production job, too.



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