Hailing from Spain, CALYX was formed in 2013 by Fantoni and Humungus with the intention of doing a studio project. After their first demo, a year later, came two new components: SD on bass and Huarte on drums. In 2017 came the more advanced demo Codex Tormentorvm, whereby CALYX began to compose new songs and perform several live shows. In July of 2018, the band recorded new material in Moontower Studios, which would subsequently birth their debut album. Now arrives that debut album, Vientos Arcaicos, grandly culminating the CALYX aesthetic. Indeed ancient but by no means regressive, CALYX's black metal breathes a rare air of authenticity - indeed, they are old souls. The quartet's inspiration remains firmly entrenched in the Middle Ages, sweeping across the native legends of the Iberian Peninsula as well as castles, ruins, Aragonese Pyrenees, and decrepitude: truly ANCIENT material for their creative grist. Suitably do CALYX charge forward with a triumphant-yet-moody style of black metal - with the emphasis on METAL - that suggests influences as varied as Master's Hammer, Bathory, Tormentor, Merciless, old Satyricon, Dissection, Desaster, and even Candlemass among others. However, with the dynamic songcraft the quartet employ across Vientos Arcaicos, as well as the serpentine Spanish tongue, the sum result is exceptionally unique in today's black metal landscape, where many/most bands forget riffs or even actual songwriting itself. Medieval black metal has a new iteration that's paradoxically old with CALYX's Vientos Arcaicos. The arcane age is here - raise your swords!
