Hailing from Zaragoza, Calyx are a black metal quartet whose debut album Vientos Arcaicos (that’s Spanish for ‘Archaic Winds’) is surely about to upset some hasty headbangers who already got their top 5 figured out. Not so fast, hombre, because the 8 tracks that represent Calyx’s powerful debut are chock-full of everything you’ve come to love about this dark side of extreme metal.
Calyx wield formidable and catchy riffs and aren’t afraid to slay them at high speed, nor bend them in the name of weirdness. On Vientos Arcaicos, Calyx pivot into an epic Bathory fist-raiser just as gracefully as they hang a sharp left into a by-the-throat Master’s Hammer-esque occult tumult, and then back out again, never once losing your feverish interest, never once coming off as self-indulgent. With lyrics (in Spanish) about “the native legends of the Iberian Peninsula as well as castles, ruins, [and the] Aragonese Pyrenees,” according to their press sheet, it seems fitting that Calyx make use of all these trades and styles of the black arts. It’s easy to imagine Huarte the drummer, S.D. the guitarist, Fantoni the bassist and other guitarist, and Ator Humungus the vocalist as members of an immortal circle who turned their backs on alchemy and now use black metal, in its various forms, to cast their spells and carry their legacies through the ages and cosmos.
Recorded at Moontower Studios, stream the debut album from Calyx now . . .
Vientos Arcaicos
Get Vientos Arcaicos from Iron Bonehead.
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