Track Premiere: Working it with Calyces’ “Unfair Labor”

If there’s a more poorly kept secret out there than the fact that Decibel has an affinity for Baroness and Mastodon, we don’t know what it is (though it likely has something to do with the swirling rumours concerning Albert Mudrian being a Napalm Death fan). The pair of modern metal behemoths have graced various covers and been the focus of multiple Hall of Fame pieces over the years, for very good and deserved reasons. As such, countless young bands have been inspired to push their own take on the world of progressive, sludge-lite, melodic metal and hard rock to greater heights.

Athens, Greece’s Calyces are the latest addition to that world of sound. Led by former Tardive Dyskinesia vocalist/guitarist Manthos Stergiou, the band – also featuring guitarist Giannis Golfis, bassist Stelios Tragos and drummer Alex Stavropoulos – will see their debut album issued on October 16. Entitled Impulse to Soar, the quartet’s opening salvo to the world is a broad spanning beast of massive, yet digestible, melodic strains, understated complexity, pulsating dynamics and lots of neat-o baritone vocalizing. Aside from inspirations nipped from the more recent works of the above-mentioned Mastodon and Baroness, the album also draws from King Crimson, Intronaut, Gojira, major label grunge and those rare moments when Tool aren’t acting like self-indulgent prats. Additionally, the record is aided in its savvy journey by guest appearances from Shining mainman Jørgen Munkeby and Chrysa Tsaltampasi of Spineless and Bella Fuzz with master masterer Alan Douches bringing it all together from behind the board.

Today, we’d like to present an advance listen of the album in the form of a track called “Unfair Labor” which Stergiou describes as: “‘Unfair Labor’ is about the deadline stress at work, a situation I often encounter. It felt like it needed a horn instrument to drag a solo out in the repeating, long riff at the end, pretty much in the classic King Crimson way. So, I approached Jørgen Munkeby from Shining, since their Blackjazz album is one of my favorite records ever. I sent him the track along with some notes and that was it. The most amazing part was that his recording was live-streamed through his personal Facebook page. That was probably the best quarantine day ever.”

For further information about the band or to snag a copy of the record, go here