Hello guys, this is Dan Keying from Cydonia, In 1998 I started to write the first songs, I don’t exactly follow the power or thrash typical line but my goal was to create good songs; in 1999 I began to form Cydonia, calling up Trevor on bass and we realized a promo CD (The King, Land of Life, Confused Future, Masters of Stars) that Metal Blade enjoined very much. Now two new members have come in the band, and so this is the band: Pete Daniels on rhythm guitar, Steve Sguario on lead guitar, Trevor O’Neal on bass, Stefan Ray on drums, and Dan Keying vocals.

CYDONIA is region on Mars, still exsisting, where since the 70s NASA SPACE PROBES took some snapeshots of these incredible Pyramidal structures, and a huge monument resembling a Sphynx; obviously science never admitted the evidence, hiding behind stupid explanations, saying that are simply shadows. I'm very interesting in Ufology and other mistery (since many years), and I’ve unified all this with music in Cydonia. There are things with neither time nor space, completely opposing the pure concept of matter…

I like this song since many years, and now we want to show our cyber-thrash/coverversion, melodic and hard at the same time.. about the lyrics it fix very well with the rest of the concept. We have chosen to put at the second position because sounds very good.

This new album is more heavy and thrash compare to the first one, my goal was to have very aggressive verses with melodic choruses. The whole atmosphere of the album is much darker/tharash than the previous album, and you can find also many weird and futuristic keyboard parts. There’s a big difference, anyway I don't want to do CDs that sound always in the same way. We hope that our fans will understand this new direction. Personally I find the album perfectly balanced between aggression and melody, and we are very satisfied to this result!

To me, I would have done it much more dark, but in studio things change. We felt a big pressure in the studio during the recording sessions, changing a music style so vastly is a big risk for a new band, but we are not afraid, the Dark Flower in any case is a big goal for me, the band, and also for Metal Blade.

I had some experiences producing demos, but maybe I have good musical insinct, and strange kind of fantasy…the Dark Flower is a big goal for me and the band, I’m very satisfied with the final result!

The reaction has been very positive; We didn’t believe in such reaction.

About my lyrics, I can’t explain in a few words. Sometimes I’m tired of the things I see in the world, I feel like I am imprisoned in an imperfect human. There are things with neither time nor space, completely opposing the pure concept of matter, the most visible ones are dreams. In our dreams, and also in our nightmares, there are doors closed to us beyond which I would like to see. Lyrics are based on different stories connected one to the other. There is a big confusion inside every religion, we‘ve confused our religions with fanatic interpretations and this is all a mistake; our senses lead us towards the most comfortable and safest path, we are careless, we look ahead, improving our life-style, our eyes betray us with clear images, distracting our attention from the real ones…maybe an alien truth behind false reality?

When I’m dreaming. Sometimes inside my dreams and nightmare I feel presences beyond hidden dimension, I found many answers by my self, but the most important sensations were inside my dreams, and this is not a fruit of my imagination, but the truth beyond dark dimension with no time…I had the idea to that concept because the human race is blind. This is a concept album regarding our dying world and our pure genetic failure. The world is always at war, and I don’t mean about the war in Iraq!! Another Age will die in front the Sun. We do not notice who has always observed us, who has always allowed our free-will in the game.

Sure!! The next album will be another concept,....the continuation of "The Dark Flower"!?!?!

Maybe Cydonia seems to be a solo-project, because the idea to make this album is mine, but Cydonia is a real band. I compose my songs on keyboard. I often sing the melodies in my mind, then I record them with the voice and I develop the best ideas with my keyboards, and prepare demos for the rest of the band. In this case, I have arranged my music with Pete Daniels completing the work together with real and efficient guitar riffs sounds; each member of the band bring his contribution to the final result.

The best five albums I have heard in my entire life are: Sex and Religion by Steve Vai, The Wall by Pink Floyd, Made in Japan by Deep Purple, Whitesnake 87, and Vulgar Display of Power by Pantera.

One Last Crime…the moment of despair…against my virtual image…slaves to a crazy game.

We want to play live, and I really like North American people and North America of course!! But it's very difficult for us to make an appearance in your Big Country, so it depends on the sales, We hope in a summer festival in Europe as first step, and out from Italy, because I don’t care italian metal scene. Personally I prefer spend my time writing new songs, I’m very busy with my personal job, about live we want to be sure that everything will be well organized, so it is still all to define.