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Supergroups suck. They are rarely super and almost never sound like a group. they either resemble a law firm (Crosby, Stills & Nash) or some gimmick hatched in a marketing meeting (Asia, Power Station, and what's up Velvet Revolver)?

Are Kalas (say it Kah-LAAAS, like you're exhaling a bong hit) a supergroup? Maybe. Sleep/High On Fire don Matt Pike is the singer, but the rest of these cats-dudes from Econochrist, Grimple, Samiam, Medication Time and Cruevo-are known but to Bay Area punks and their fans. And yet, based on the reaction to their oddly groovy sludge roused from the huddled masses at South by Southwest, these dudes could end up as worshipped as anything else Pike has put his hand and his pipes (in both senses).

Kalas is Pikes chance to work out his howl without strapping on a guitar (though a future three guitar Kalas is rumored). It's also a chance to move away from High On Fire's Motorhead gallop-and Sleep's resin-into something more blackened, and, purhaps suprisingly, a little more more melodic.

But Kalas also give Pike something he doesn't have in High On Fire: twin f'in guitars. Which means twin f'in guitar harmonies, the root integer of the NWOBHM all these dudes grew up worshipping. But there's no power metal/Maiden/Priest tribute steez going on here. This is purely modern slog, and it happens to have one of the underground's most charismatic bellows at the fore. -Joe Gross, Decibel Magazine, June 2006

Below is a video of the song "Frozen Sun" at the Rambler during SXSW in Austin, March 2006 .. .. width="425" height="350">....> ..