Osyron is a symphonic metal band based in Calgary, Alberta. The group consists of vocalist Reed Alton, guitarists Krzysztof Stalmach and Bobby Harley, bassist Tyler Corbett, and drummer Cody Anstey. Bridging the gap between traditional European metal and the music of their homegrown contemporaries, Osyron has a sound all their own. We had a small chat with Krzysztof Stalmach about the band’s history and future plans.

Beginnings:

Bobby Harley and I have been friends and played music together since elementary school. We eventually founded the metal band Morbid Theory in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada before moving to Calgary, Alberta, and renaming it Osyron, along the way releasing the concept album “Harbinger”. During the time in Calgary, we switched out some members and added in a few new ones. Those being Reed Alton, Tyler Corbett, and Trevor Cobb. That lineup of Osyron is the one that performed on the original version of Kingsbane. With Reed singing, Tyler playing bass, and handling mixing duties, and Trevor on drums we saw continued success. However Trevor eventually left the band to pursue other life goals, and Cody Anstey was found via online posts. After his audition and the first show, it was an absolute no-brainer to add him into the Osyron family, and we got moving on writing the next album, Foundations. As luck would have it, Foundations’ release lined up with the worldwide pandemic, so it was an interesting release, to say the least, but definitely, one that saw we substantially grow our reach around the world.

Behind the name:

I came up with the name while Bobby and I were brainstorming new names. We talked about how we wanted something “mythic” sounding, having both grown up loving Roman/Greek mythology, and playing video games with epic/mythic sounding characters.

Inspiration:

All the guys in Osyron listen to a variety of different artists, which helps keep our sound diverse. We’re taking inspiration from all the different corners of music and media (whether that is video games, movies, TV shows, art, etc) that each member consumes, and then focussing it, as a group, into a voice we think accurately displays where Osyron is at as a band.

Anything and everything in life can inspire us to write music.

Sometimes it’s hearing another member’s idea for a song that takes you off on a writing spree. Other times its interactions you’ve had in your life, reflections, or other events. We are currently writing the follow-up to our Foundations album. At this stage, there’s not much to tell besides that you can expect a full-length album. We are always looking to improve ourselves as musicians, players, songwriters…etc., but that’s hard to quantify in a statement of what you should expect. We don’t really know what to expect ourselves, we just know that the direction we’re headed for is continuing to write music that excites us and makes us proud.

Teamwork:

We try more and more often to work together. Kingsbane was written entirely by Bobby and me because in Osyron’s first few incarnations they were the only two writers. However, since Reed and Tyler joined there has always been an active “everybody should write” vibe. We all are in this band together because we want to write together. We all respect and value everyone else’s inputs, ideas, and we believe that makes us stronger. As far as individual tasks – aside from writing we’re also lucky that in Tyler and Cody we have two professional-level audio engineers. Both of them have run their own independent home studios for years, and between the two of them, all of Osyron’s audio engineering needs are well covered. Reed is a great frontman both on and off the stage, so he takes on a large part of the face-to-face interactions with media, fans, promoters, etc. Bobby is a web/design guru and does a lot of the backend tasks (fully designed and runs the Osyron website, EPK coordination and hosting, etc.) and handles a majority of the interaction between management and our marketing/PR partners. Additionally, I, Cody, and Tyler have all done various video editing for the band’s social channels.

COVID-19:

It has definitely changed how we plan releases, and how we handle interacting with our fanbase. You really miss out on so much when you can’t play live, but you have to keep going and finding things that work. We’re all in music because we all wanted to write and play music together with other people. Being that we haven’t been able to play live in over a year now, we’ve focussed on the writing side of things, and the visual side of being in a band.

Fun facts:

I slip on the ice at least once a week during winter and it provides joy for everyone in the band. This is why our target tour audience is Northern Europe over the winter as we want to bring this joy to everyone in the world that has snow. 
Bobby’s volume knob is at zero while playing live, just to make sure the band always sounds good. Cody loves BBCs aka big, black coffees. Also, Reed is a Calgary Flames fan, and that’s pretty funny.

Cover photo by Ara Shimoon