Today Jon Bodan from Halcyon Way tells us about the title track from their brand new album which hit stores today, "IndoctriNation," the sequel to "Building the Tower." Here is the story: This is the title track from our new CD, and lyrically it deals with the subject of radical Islamic Jihad. I'm certain that the lyrics are going to piss a few people off!
This song started its life a few years back and it was called "Citizen Zero" at that point. Our previous vocalist had written it about illegal immigration and we'd been playing it live for quite some time, even before our first album "A Manifesto For Domination" came out, and it was a crowd favorite. However, he left the band and demanded that we not use any of his lyrics or material. So, since we had already tracked the music for the record at that point we had to re-imagine the song from the ground up lyrically. That was pretty tough in this case because we were used to it as it was originally written.
So what happened was when Steve joined the band, I went up to Nashville to his house from Atlanta and we started reworking the material. I had come up with some new lyrics but had no idea how to really put it all together, except for the "Aaah" parts after the choruses, because I woke up one day and that part just hit me, it was going through my head when I got up. So we demoed the song out and I really didn't know what to think – Steve has a totally different vibe from our old singer, and like I say – we were used to it a different way. It took a minute for me to really latch onto it, and I think the other guys had the same thing going on too. But in time the way the song ended up is one of my favorite things that Halcyon Way has ever done, and that part after the chorus makes me rage every time I hear it!
Musically the song has got some vicious thrash riffs, a great breakdown, and an insanely catchy chorus. Kris also did a killer job on some death vocals on it that are really catchy and they play off of what Steve did really nicely too. Definitely one of my favorite HW tracks!
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!