HALYCON WAY founder/guitarist Jon Bodan recently spoke with Sean Meloy at Metal Express radio to discuss the band's new album, IndoctriNation. An excerpt is available below:

MER: Your music is very diverse, and can be described as one part progressive with an extra large dose of heaviness. What are the qualities you believe make Halcyon Way stand out from the pack?

JB: "It’s no secret that we got our break in the Prog scene – that’s how we met Lance King with Nightmare Records, Claus of Intromental, and made many of our fans – but we feel that we’re a much heavier band than most of the ones in that genre. I’m more influenced by bands like TESTAMENT, MEGADETH, NEVERMORE, and the like – as well as prog bands like old QUEENSRYCHE or FATES WARNING – but also old school death metal and some of the new stuff like CHIMAIRA or DEVILDRIVER. Kris Maltenieks (bass) has a black metal background. Ernie Topran (drums) listens to a lot of technical prog, but also plays in a black metal side project with Kris called XERODERMA. Steve Braun's (vocals) biggest influences were '80s glam bands and the like, but he also listens to a lot of modern heavy stuff. We’re both influenced as songwriters by bands like KING'S X and GALACTIC COWBOYS, too. So we think that we bring all of these really diverse influences to the table and it makes Halcyon Way into something really unique. It’s heavy, it’s driving and energetic, but we never lose sight of a good melody or a hook – the songwriting as a whole is more important than any other element. If it’s not an anthem, we don’t want to put it out."

MER: Many of the songs you write have a politically charged message -- what kinds of things inspire your lyrics?

JB: "Our debut, A Manifesto For Domination, had a lot of subjects, but I think the overriding theme on that CD was just about being strong, and true to yourself. Overcoming adversity through focus and will, really. Building The Towers and IndoctriNation are what will most likely be known as our 'political' albums because we wanted to have a theme dealing with the loss of freedoms we as Americans have. Generally speaking, we have short attention spans, we don’t really care what’s going on with our country unless it interferes with our TV schedule, and the like. So we’ve allowed the government to slowly take away our freedoms in exchange for what we think is 'security.' There’s also a strong idea on there that our political leadership is really just out to keep their personal power bases, and they care nothing for the people. So the title of Building The Towers is really about politicians building their own Towers Of Babel, so to speak; trying to become gods. We wanted to tackle these subjects from a non-preachy, non-partisan type of standpoint so that’s how we did it."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

IndoctriNation is the sequel to 2010's Building The Towers and continues the sound and theme of that album. The tracklisting is as follows:

‘On Black Wings’

‘Our Finest Hour’

‘IndoctriNation’

‘Revolution Is Now’

‘The Wages Of War’

‘Stand Up’ (Sammy Hagar Cover)

‘The Age Of Betrayal’ (radio Edit)

‘The System’

BW&BK; scribe Carl Begai recently caught up Bodan. An excerpt is available below:

Being faced with your own mortality is a surefire way to put life’s mundane trials and tribulations in perspective. HALCYON WAY guitarist Jon Bodan found himself staring into just such a mirror in October 2010, having been diagnosed with lymphoma practically on the eve of the band’s second album release. Had this interview gone down several months ago as planned, conversation would likely have centered on Bodan’s condition, and the effects it had on his day-to-day existence and Halcyon Way. Instead, we were able to focus on the band’s new album, IndoctriNation, and Bodan’s hopes for their future, as he was given a clean bill of health the same week we finally hooked up.

“I’m in full remission,” says Bodan, “and basically there's no treatment, per se. I just have to do scans every three to six months for the next three to five years to monitor things closely in case of recurrence. After five years they consider you to be cured. Until then you're in remission.”

The ultimate shot in the arm, it’s safe to assume that in spite of the obstacles and frustration that come with being a small band in today’s music industry, Bodan and Halcyon Way are geared to keep hacking away and pushing forward until they get through.

“We have that conversation regularly,” Bodan admits. "At the end of the day you have to do this because you love to do it. It’s in our blood. The first record, A Manifesto For Domination, put our flag in the ground and got us out there. The first pressing sold out, but I don’t know if it’s done much beyond that. With Building The Towers, we felt really strongly about it and decided we were going to take it as far as we could go with regards to pushing it and putting our money where our mouth was. I think the album did really well for us, and the reviews that we got were almost all really good. It sold through the first pressing in less than six months. We re-pressed it in May or June this year, and it only came out last October.”

So, it’s safe to say Halcyon Way made inroads with Building The Towers the hard way, as a word-of-mouth band.

“Pretty much. We did a campaign through BW&BK;, which I think helped us, and we did a little bit of touring behind it, but not as much as we would have liked because of my health. I think we could have pushed the album further, but we knew all along we were going to put out a sequel to it.”

Go to this location for the full story.

A promo clip for IndoctriNation is available below: