Callisto Noir

Callisto 'Noir' (Svart, 2012)

I was sorting through the records filed as new arrivals/listened to once/never listened to beside the death deck and in amongst a number of records which have missed the Blip treatment was Callisto's second album. 'Noir' was in the listened to once pile and had been kept uncatalogued because I knew it deserved repeated spins. A slight alphabetical aberration, but we're still at C so please indulge me.

I saw Callisto supporting High on Fire at Nice n' Sleazy in March 2005 and they blew Matt Pike's riff mongers away. I was pretty much entranced and also convinced that the band were Japanese rather than Finnish. Admittedly they were hiding behind jet black bowl cuts and were more or less in silhouette so it's almost understandable. I was a little bit worse for wear as well, although not quite as wrecked as Fray who elected to stay to see the last of High on Fire and missed the last train and bus back to Edinburgh. We've laughed on many occasions about his six hour trawl around Glasgow until he could get a bus home, but at the time he was pretty miffed and freezing.

Svart, as usual, have done an impeccable job with this vinyl version of the 2006 release; impressive gatefold, understated artwork and nice solid coloured vinyl. Callisto also did an impeccable job of broadening their already expansive soundscapes realised on 2004's 'True Nature Unfolds'.

Post rock, post hardcore, post crust; it's almost impossible to pigeonhole Callisto's mix of epic and brooding melancholy. At its heaviest this LP is beautifully melodic and at its most melodic its beautifully heavy as it dips and soars in equal measure.

A fantastic release by a much underrated and often overlooked band.

Peace