Callisto - Discography

Callisto is a finnish sextet of post metal created in 2001. The band has changed their sound completely since the debut in 2004 (True Nature Unfolds). They started off as a hardcore project, but in the aforementioned album sludge and doom metal influences can be heard, and the last releases feature cleaner vocals and overall sound. The band's lyrics speak about christian themes and spiritualism.

The line-up consisted, at 2004, of four musicians (and several guests): Ariel Björklund (drums), Markus Myllykangas (vocals and guitar), Juho Niemelä (bass) and Johannes Nygård (guitar). For the next album, another musician was hired: Arto Karvonen for the synths and samples. For Providence, Jani Ala-Hukkala took part as lead vocalist, with former vocalist doing the backing vocals and scream parts. And for the last album up to date, Johannes was replaced by Tero Holopainen as guitarist.

This post will be a little longer than usual because Callisto is my favorite post metal band. Their early work was too metalcore for my taste, but they soon changed into a post metal aesthetic in their debut, True Nature Unfolds, released in 2004. It's heavily influenced by Cult of Luna, and mixes in a bit of doom metal as well. The whole album has an agressive, bold sound and a straight-forward authentic metal approach without sounding too abrasive. The record received attention from Earache Records, which reissued the album with different artwork in 2005.

In 2006 they released Noir, which followed the steps of the previous album and improved the sound a bit. There is some experimentation going on here, as they added more soft parts that blend together with the harsh parts perfectly. They also added elements from other genres, such as a mellotron and a saxophone. So, this album is really progressive, since it mixes many genres together to create something unique. One may argue though that this album is yet another decent post metal release, and nothing beyond that. I disagree, Callisto really managed to take the atmosphere from Finland and mix christian themes in it, along with diverse experimentation to add to the album's cold, gloomy, envolving and fascinating atmosphere. A true masterpiece.

The time gaps between each album got larger since the debut, as Providence was released only three years after Noir. This is because their songwriting is more complex and involves the whole band, which got bigger as time passed. For this album, there's a change in the lead singing, but not only in the singing - the new member caused a dramatical change. Providence is the exact opposite of Noir. It's soft, warm and just not as good. One may say a heavy band turns to shit in the moment it decides to go softer. Example: Opeth (anyone remember the controversies over Heritage, eh?). This may be true, as the moment Callisto went softer gave us the nadir of their career, but this album has its moments. The heavy ones, that is. They still used that harsh formula of Noir and True Nature Unfolds here, and if there's something good to be said about this album, it's that at least they tried to make something unique. This and the fact that they mastered the change from soft to harsh in seconds. The great moments make this album worth though, they make this album not any worse than albums that i'd rate as 7/10.

Secret Youth came in 2015 furthering their experimentation of Providence in harsher territory. 6 years after their third album, Callisto released a piece of music that recreates the atmosphere of Noir using the elements of Providence. A very interesting experiment, as at the end of the trip you'll be left like the guy on the cover, but will be left hoping for more.

There's not much left to be said, if you want a cleaner sound, go for Providence. For something harsh and metallic, True Nature Unfolds. For experimentation and sadness, Noir. And Secret Youth for a mix between Noir and Providence.

2005 - True Nature Unfolds

 Earache Records

1 - 31 46ºN, 35 14ºE

2 - Blackhole

3 - Limb: Diasporas

4 - Cold Stare

5 - Storm

6 - Caverns of Khafka

7 - Like Abel's Blood Cried For Revenge

8 - Worlds Collide

9 - Masonic

10 - The Great Divorce

155,6 MB - 320 Kbps

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2006 - Noir

 Fullsteam Records

1 - Wormwood

2 - Latterday Saints

3 - The Fugitive

4 - Backwoods

5 - A Close Encounter

6 - Pathos

7 - Folkslave

8 - Woven Hands

125 MB - 320 Kbps

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2009 - Providence

 Svart Records

1 - In Session

2 - Rule the Blood

3 - Covenant Colours

4 - Eastern Era

5 - New Canaan

6 - Stasis

7 - Where the Spirits Tread

8 - Dead Weight

9 - Drying Mouths (In a Gasping Land)

10 - Providence

156,7 MB - 320 Kbps

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2015 - Secret Youth

 Svart Records

1 - Pale Pretender

2 - Backbone

3 - Acts

4 - The Dead Layer

5 - Lost Prayer

6 - Breasts of Mothers

7 - Grey Light

8 - Ghostwritten

9 - Olds Souls

10 - Dam's Lair Road

130,3 MB - 320 Kbps

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                                                      Lasse Stewart.

Pelican - Discography

A quartet from Illinois, U.S., Pelican is an instrumental post metal band originaly created as a side project for the members' main band, Tusk, but soon became their main project. Pelican is a very divisive band, receiving mixed critics from every part of the metal community, however it's almost consensual that their debut, Australasia, is an amazing piece of music.

They were formed in 2001 by four friends: Trevor de Brauw (guitar), Bryan and Larry Herweg (bass and drums, respectively) and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec (guitar). The first three remain in the band up to date, while Laurent was replaced by Dallas Thomas in 2012.

Pelican's sound is a recipe for controversy. First of all, they're instrumental and their songs are typically long. Second, they often stick around metal elements but sounding much less "metallic" than other experimental metal bands, and as everyone knows, the metal community can be very toxic sometimes. Regardless of this, it's very nice to study or read while listening to "Australasia" or "The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw", and maybe even to headbang to "Forever becoming". Pelican has a typical post rock approach from Tortoise, mixed with ISIS' atmospheric metal sound and a hint of Black Sabbath. Their sound can be defined by the use of metal elements to make post rock music mixed with 2000's prog metal.

Their discography is rather small, so it's no problem getting into it. The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw is recommended for a starting point. Their last album is very harder and the first is a bit more light and atmospheric. The Fire is a bit more prog oriented, and the last two are pretty similar to Australasia.

2003 - Australasia

 Hydra Head Records

1 - NightEndDay

2 - Drought

3 - Angel Tears

4 - GW

5 - Untitled

6 - Australasia

108,5 MB - 320 Kbps

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2005 - The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw

 Hydra Head Records

1 - Last Day of Winter

2 - Autumn Into Summer

3 - March to the Sea

4 - •

5 - Red Ran Amber

6 - Aurora Borealis

7 - Sirius

132,7 MB - 320 Kbps

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2007 - City of Echoes

 Hydra Head Records

1 - Bliss in Concrete

2 - City of Echoes

3 - Space Broken - Parts Needed

4 - Winds With Hands

5 - Dead Between the Walls

6 - Lost in the Headlights

7 - Far From Fields

8 - A Delicate Sense of Balance

96,9 MB - 320 Kbps

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2009 - What We All Come to Need

 Southern Lord Records

1 - Glimmer

2 - The Creeper

3 - Ephemeral

4 - Specks of Light

5 - Strung Up From the Sky

6 - An Inch Above Sand

7 - What We All Come to Need

8 - Final Breath

118,5 MB - 320 Kbps

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2013 - Forever Becoming

 Southern Lord Records

1 - Terminal

2 - Deny the Absolute

3 - The Tundra

4 - Immutable Dusk

5 - Threnody

6 - The Cliff

7 - Vestiges

8 - Perpetual Dawn

118,6 MB - 320 Kbps

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Lasse Stewart.

Sólstafir - Discography

Sólstafir is an icelandic band formed in 1995. Originally a viking and black metal band, but they abandoned the style in their second album, "Masterpiece of Bitterness", for a more transcendental sound. Even though the band is quite famous in the metal community, they're not famous for the genre, just being labelled heavy metal. However, most of their releases are amazing post metal albums that should be a must for every post metal fan.

They were founded by three friends:Aðalbjörn Tryggvason (guitarist and vocalist), Halldór Einarsson (bassist, left the band before the release of their debut) and Guðmundur Óli Pálmason (drummer). Later, in 1999, they would hire two more members, guitarist Sæþór Maríus Sæþórsson and bassist Svavar Austmann. Their drummer Pálmason would leave the band shortly after the release of their last album, "Berdreyminn", and was replaced by Hallgrímur Jón Hallgrímsson.

 Stylistically, Sólstafir's themes revolve around icelandic folklore and spiritual subjects, combining their typically dreamy and almost poetic lyricism with harsh heavy metal vocals. Their first releases (demos and first album) show a typical black metal approach from what you'd expect from an icelandic metal group. However, their sound would progress beyond the label of any genre with the next releases. Masterpiece of Bitterness shows a more mature band playing with various genres at once in longer and more experimental songs. They managed to mix a gloomy atmosphere with the harshness of death metal, and this bold experimentation would turn less abrasive in one of the most recent releases, Ótta. This album shows a cleaner and dreamier sound than the previous works, a sound that's reached with the use of strings, banjos and keyboards.

 The first album has a lot of appeal to black metal fans, while the three next are better for who's into death metal, and the last ones have a doom metal approach.

2002 - Í Blóði og Anda
Ars Metalli Records
 
1 - Undir Jökli
2 - Í Blóõi og Anda
3 - The Underworld Song
4 - Tormentor
5 - 2000 Ár

6 - Ei Við Munum Iðrast

7 - Bitch In Black

8 - Í Viking

9 - Árstíðir Dauðans

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2005 - Masterpiece of Bitterness
Spikefarm Records

1 - I Myself the Visionary Head
2 - Nature Strutter
3 - Bloodsoaked Velvet
4 - Lux Fare
5 - Ghosts of Light

6 - Ritual of Fire

7 - Nattfari

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2009 - Köld

Spikefarm Records

1 - 78 Days in the Desert

2 - Köld
3 - Pale Rider
4 - She Destroys Again

5 - Necrologue
  6 - World Void of Souls

7 - Love Is the Devil (and I Am In Love)
  8 - Goddess of the Ages

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2011 - Svartir Sandar

Season of Mist

Disc 1 - Andvari

1 - Ljós Í Stormi
2 - Fjara
3 - Þín orð
4 - Sjúki Skugginn

5 - Æra

6 - Kukl

Disc 2 - Gola

1 - Melrakkablús
2 - Draumfari
3 - Stinningskaldi
4 - Stormfari

5 - Svartir Sandar

 6 - Djákninn

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 2014 - Ótta
Season of Mist

1 - Lágnætti
2 - Ótta

3 - Rismál

4 - Dagmál

5 - Miðdegi

6 - Nónl 

7 - Miðaftann

8 - Náttmál

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 2017 - Berdreyminn
Season of Mist

1 - Silfur-refur
2 - Ísafold

3 - Hula

4 - Hárós

5 - Hvít sæng

6 - Dýrafjörður

7 - Ambátt

8 - Blajfall

 

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Lasse Stewart.

Cult of Luna - Discography

 Cult of Luna is a swedish metal band, largely influenced by Coalesce and Radiohead. The band now is one of the most important musical groups from the post metal scene, along with Neurosis themselves and ISIS. They've reached major fame with the release of "Salvation", their third album which is regarded as their magnum opus.

The line-up has suffered a lot of changes since the band's foundation in '98. The original line-up consisted of Klas Rydberg (vocalist), Johannes Person (guitarist and vocalist), Erik Olofsson (guitarist) and Magnus Lindberg (drummer). Shortly after the formation of the band, two other members would be hired for percussion and bass, and Magnus would stick to the guitar. At the moment, only Magnus and Johannes remained from the original line-up, with the addition of Thomas Hedlund as drummer, Andreas Johansson as bassist, Fredrik Kihlberg as guitarist and Kristian Karlsson as keyboardist.

The band's early works lean toward doom metal, but soon they would incorporate elements of progressive and sludge metal, mixing them together in long songs with often repetitive, agressive and non-conventional song structures, along with heavy orchestration and opposition of light and heavy sections. This sound is very noticeable in the aforementioned "Salvation" album, an undisputable gem for post metal. The band would later incorporate electronic elements as well, most evident on "Vertikal".

 

Their first two releases are fit for doom metal fans, while the latter stuff has more appeal to industrial metal fans. Salvation, Eternal Kingdom and Somewhere Along the Highway are better for prog metal fans, but anyways i recommend starting with Salvation and then Vertikal. The first album shows perfectly the band at its early stage, with their typical post metal approach, while Vertikal shows the experimentation they've done on the later years.

2001 - Cult of Luna

 Earache Records

1 - The Revelation Embodied

2 - Hollow

 3 - Dark Side of the Sun

4 - Sleep

5 - To Be Remembered

6 - Beyond Fate

7 - 101

8 - The Sacrifice

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2003 - The Beyond

Earache Records

1 - Inside Fort Meade

2 - Receiver

3 - Genesis

4 - The Watchtower

5 - Circle

6 - Arrival

7 - Leash

8 - Clones

9 - Deliverance

10 - Further 

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2004 - Salvation
Earache Records

1 - Echoes
2 - Vague Illusions
3 - Leave Me Here
4 - Waiting For You
5 - Adrift
6 - White Cell
7 - Crossing Over
8 - Into the Beyond

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2006 - Somewhere Along the Highway

Earache Records

1 - Marching to the Heartbeats

2 - Finland

3 - Back to Chapel Town

4 - And With Her Came the Birds

5 - Thirtyfour

6 - Dim

7 - Dark City, Dead Man

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2008 - Eternal Kingdom

Earache Records

1 - Owlwood

2 - Eternal Kingdom

3 - Ghost Trail

4 - The Lure (Interlude)

5 - Mire Deep

6 - The Great Migration

7 - Österbotten

8 - Curse

 9 - Ugin

10 - Following Betulas

 

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2013 - Vertikal

Indie Recordings

1 - The One

2 - I: The Weapon

3 - Vicarious Redemption

4 - The Sweep

5 - Synchronicity

6 - Mute Departure

7 - Disharmonia

8 - In Awe of

9 - Passing Through

Bonus Tracks:

10 - The Flow Reversed

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2016 - Mariner
Indie Recordings
 
1 - A Greater Call
2 - Chevron
3 - The Wreck of S.S. Needle
4 - Approaching Transition
5 - Cygnus

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Lasse Stewart.

ISIS - Discography

 ISIS is another very well-known band in the avant-garde music community, and also very different from what Neurosis sounds like, much more atmospheric and less abrasive, with more progressive elements. Like Neurosis, their early work as more violent, and they evolved their sound in a lighter way.

The band was created in 1997 by four friends out of dissatisfaction with their other band experiences. Aaron Turner (guitar and vocals and also owner of Hydra Head Records), Jeff Caxide (bass), Chris Mereschuk (electronics/vocals) and Aaron Harris (drums) formed  the original line-up, but it has suffered some changes even before the release of their debut. Randy Larsen was hired as a guitarist but later replaced by Michael Gallagher. The drummer left in the same year (1998) and was replaced by Jay Randall, who was replaced by Briant Clifford Meyer shortly after. The band remained with this line-up until 2010, when it disbanded.

Ever since their formation, the band seeked to push the boundaries of heavy music, and that is very noticeable in the experimentation the band would do in every album. They treat music as a piece of art, in the words of vocalist Turner, "the songwriting and the artwork come from the same place". ISIS is also known for their concept albums, with their themes drawing from literary works such as House of Leaves, Labyrinths and Don Quixote. The philosopher Jeremy Bentham has also influenced on the band's themes.

 Panopticon is widely regarded as ISIS's best work, followed closely by Oceanic, and should be the listener's starting point. After you've listened to both, try out In the Absence of Truth, and after that, the other two records. It's little problem to get into their discography actually, since it's very small and every album sounds like a progression of the previous work.

2000 - Celestial
Escape Artist Records

 
1 - SGNL>01
2 - Celestial (the Tower)
3 - Glisten
4 - Swarm Reigns (Down)
5 - SGNL>02
6 - Deconstructing Towers
7 - SGNL>03
8 - Collapse and Crush
9 - C.F.T. (New Circuitry and Continued Evolution
10 - Gentle Time
11 - SGNL>04 (End Transmission)

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2002 - Oceanic
Ipecac Recordings
 
1 - The Beginning and the End
2 - The Other
3 - False Light
4 - Carry
5 - -
6 - Maritime
7 - Weight
8 - From Sinking
9 - Hym

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2004 - Panopticon
Ipecac Recordings
  
1 - So Did We
2 - Backlit
3 - In Fiction
4 - Wills Dissolve
5 - Syndic Calls
6 - Altered Course
7 - Grinning Mouths

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2006 - In the Absence of Truth
Ipecac recordings

1 - Wrists of Kings
2 - Not in Rivers, But in Drops
3 - Dulcinea
4 - Over Root and Thorn
5 - 1.000 Shards
6 - All Out of Time, All Into Space
7 - Holy Tears
8 - Firdous e Bareen
9 - Garden of Light

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2009 - Wavering Radiant
Ipecac Recordings
  1 - Hall of the Dead
2 - Ghost Key
3 - Hand of the Host
4 - Wavering Radiant
5 - Stone to Wake a Serpent
6 - 20 Minutes / 40 Years
7 - Threshold of Transformation

Bonus tracks:

1 - Way Through Woven Branches

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Lasse Stewart.