I went to see Callisto's 10-year anniversary retrospective gig on saturday in Klubi with my brother. Callisto has been my favorite band since they released their second album Noir in 2006. Other than the fact that their music is really great they have a special place in my heart since they are originally from my small town of Kokkola. Now they live in Turku (I happen to live in Turku also now) but they are still hometown heroes for me.

The gig was really special since they had invited some other bands (Kolt and Benea Reach). Benea Reach was quite nice eventhough I don't typically like the kind of music they played. Benea Reach are from Norway and some of the guys used to play in a Swedish hardcore band called Selfmindead which was infuental to Callistos early music. I believe the guys who used to play in Selfmindead are Sweden Finns since the vocalist spoke perfect finnish which was a surprise for me since I knew nothing about the band before the gig.

Callisto's gig was perhaps in top 3 gigs I've ever seen in my life. I've seen them many times before but this time was amazing. They played some really old songs they had not played in years. The atmosphere of the gig was amazing. Markus (guitarist, vocalist) nearly threw his microphone stand in my head during the encore after the gig we went to talk to him and he gave us his setlist. After the gig I went to see my friends who were also at the Klubi and I end up hanging with them to the morning. One of the best nights in a very long time.

The retrospective setlist:

1.Dying Desire (2001)
2.Anastasis (2002)
3.Jemima (2003)
4.Caverns of Khafka (2004)
5.Storm (2004)
6.(new drone)
7.Wormwood (2006)
8.The Fugitive (2006)
9.Backwoods (2006)
10.Dead Weight (2009)
11.Rule the Blood (2009)
12.New Canaan (2009)
13.Providence (2009)
--
14.Cold Stare (2004)

Additional performers:
-Esa Klapuri (saxophone)
-Jonas Olsson (vocals & slideguitar)
-Kim Mäenpää (vocals)


Callisto - Cold Stare


Callisto - The Fugitive

Up and down and all the way around

Few weeks ago Rubik released their new album Solar. Rubik is a Finnish indie band with some prog rock tendencies. I have to say that the new album is their best one yet and propably the best album of 2011 for me. It's absolutely wonderful. I had the chance to see Rubik live few weeks ago and it was one of the best gigs I've ever been to. They play so tight and the atmosphere at the gig was unbelievable.









"But then it finally happened we got old and wondered if it should feel like we were reborn"

Hip Hop Hurraa!



I'm not the biggest fan of hip hop but lately I've fallen in love with finnish artist Asa's music. Matti Salo, better known by his stage name Asa, is a Finnish hip hop artist. He released his debut album Punainen tiili in 2001 under the moniker Avain. Punainen Tiili is quite legendary album in Finnish hip hop. The debut differs from the later albums with it's more traditional hip hop and straightforward lyrics. The later albums have more metaphorical lyrics and the music is more unconventional with folk instruments and shamanistic gypsy beats.
Many of Asa's lyrics are political and have alot of social commentary.
Asa released his latest album Jou Jou in 23rd of february 2011 under the moniker Asa Masa.

You're so beautiful now

Summer and being completely in love feels good



I'm going to write more about music and other stuff when I get from work.

In Crust We Grind I'

I've been listening to quite alot of grindcore, crust and hardcore lately so I thought I should write something about some of the great bands I've been listening to. These bands are quite a new musical side to me since I wasn't that big fan of this kind of music until very recently. I have to thank my friends who play in some crust/grind bands for introducing me to some of these great bands. I'm doing this in parts.



Spawn From Deceit





Some of my closest friends play in this band. SFD plays grindcore with a twist of crust and hardcore elements. They've released one EP: God Less America-demo/ep (2010) and Promo 2011 (2011). They're recording their debut album this summer.






Nistikko





Nistikko is a Finnish grindcore band from Tornio and Kokkola (hte later being my old hometown). Really nice grindcore stuff with two vocalists. I know the guitar player of this band also.





Psykoanalyysi




Psykoanalyysi is a hardcore punk/grindcore band from Jyväskylä, Finland. Propably my favorite one of these three. Really great hardcore. I'm seeing these guys in couple of weeks

In Crust We Grind II: Heja Sverige!




I haven't written anything on this journal this summer so I think I should write something. I could start off by finishing my "In crust we grind" stuff. This is the second half of the crust journal entry and on this one I'll be talking about two Swedish crust bands that I absolutely adore.


Totalt Jävla Mörker



Totalt Jävla Mörker is a political crust punk band from Skellefteå, Sweden. The band formed in 1998. The band combines hardcore, grindcore, crust and black metal into their sound. Their name means ‘’Total ****ing Darkness’’ in Swedish.
They've release quite alot of material but my absolute favorite album is their self-titled one released in 2006.




M:40



M:40 is a crustpunk band from Lidköping, Sweden. The project started in 2002 when they recorded a totally improvised recording that became their first demo. After a while they started to take the project a little more serious and they recorded few songs to a compilation album and also their debut album Tomma Ord Är Inte Värda Ett Skit. In 2007 they released Historiens Svarta Vingslag which is my favorite one from them. Really nice crust punk

Originally Posted by ilashes. Some of this music is really incredible and i've heard almost none of it before reading this. Fantastic choices and reviews!

Immanu El - In Passage
Genre: post-rock/indie rock


Swedish post-rockers Immanu El just released their third full length album In Passage last week. I was really excited about this album since I’m a huge fan of Immanu El and the whole swedish post-rock scene. My excitement was well justified since the bands previous albums They’ll Come, They Come and Moen have both been some of my absolute favorites from the whole scene and have both been played over and over again in my small apartment. This excitement for the new album was also very well awarded since this album delivered even though all the remarkably high expectations I had for it. In fact In Passage is in my opinion by far the best Immanu El release yet. From start to finish the album is stacked with melodies filled with somber yet beautiful emotions that make you weep for the sheer beauty of the music and the scenery it creates.

The songs on the album aren’t quite as long as some other post-rock bands usually tend to have. Also the album has quite a lot of singing that the singer Claes Strängberg delivers perfectly .The singing on this album is so good that it might perhaps be some of the best singing I’ve heard in the whole scene. The album has a lot of piano being used in the songs which is a really good thing since it’s these piano arrangements that really create a huge part of the albums beauty (for example the piano on Skagerak). It’s quite hard for me to say which songs on the album are the stand-out tracks since the whole album is such a great piece of music from start to finish. But If I had to pick a few tracks I’d have to say that the opening track Skagerak, The Threshold and Comforting Dawn are absolutely breathtaking.

I have to admit that I have no complaints about this album whatsoever. These Swedish guys haven’t really re-invented anything with their indie/post-rock but they know what they are doing and they’re doing it so well. It’s safe for me to say that this album is for me the best post-rock album of the year and one of my favorite album releases this year.