NOIR

Callisto is a a Finnish five piece playing a mix of post, and AvantGarde metal, and I gotta say that they are pretty good at what they do. Noir, from the first couple of notes, gives an eerie dark atmosphere, not like Cult of Luna's, which is more aggressive, more post rocky, but kind of like a less straight forward Maudlin of the Well, Incorporating delayed guitars, horns, and not-so-metal drumming to make a great eclectic post metal album. Not only that, but their lyrics are laced with Christian themes giving them a lyrical edge over pretty much all post metal (considering half of the genre is lyrical, and the other half attempting Yes lyrics).

The music is basically dominated by guitars, with keyboards in the background most of the time. As the songs progress, Arpeggios build into crushing power chords, simple beats turn into thundering fills , and some incredible growling comes in. The singers voice is under mixed a lot of the time, which is sad considering his grunts are intense, and really help the climaxes get that edge. After the climax, the songs will usually die down to some weird state of keyboard samples, and background guitars, and finally build up to another epic climax.

My favorite track on Noir is the Fugitive, the most emotional and powerful, placed conveniently after the more chilled out track Latter day saints. I recommend anyone into Avant Garde metal or post metal this album, it's so close to being a five star album, it's almost unfair. 4

I just realized this has become my favourite album from Finland, my home country. Not bad, eh? Well, it is hard to find anything negative to say about Noir. Everything that feels out of place or incomplete on the other two Callisto albums comes together here to make absolute sense. They use dynamics wonderfully, never keeping a section going for too long or overusing their heavier sides. A brilliant Opeth-like riff can suddenly turn into a sax solo (on the first track, Wormwood) or even a mellow jazz groove-bass oriented section (Folkslave). And when they finally release their "full power", so to speak, like in the end section of Fugitive, the result is some of the greatest metal I've ever heard. Man, talk about building and releasing tensions. I am usually envious of all the countless great Swedish prog bands, but this cd is something that makes me proud being a Finn. Simply ear candy from start to finish.