Kalisia
Cybion

There are things that, while remaining always the same, continuously change. The sky. The human soul. People themselves. Or this album.

If the Kalisia took a remarkable 14 years to return to the music scene after the promising demo "Skies" (1995), there is a valid reason. By completing "Cybion" (2009), the French band finally gave vent to their aspirations of creating a true work of art. This concept album indeed presents a single, very long song lasting over 71 minutes, divided into four parts ("Revelation", "Elevation", "Regression" and "Extinction") and into twenty minor tracks. "Cybion" is a true musical novel, in which humanity, having reached a highly advanced technological level, encounters the alien Arken, who speak the Kal language (created specifically for this album) and convince some humans to leave with them, while others remain at their own risk and peril...

The text and music are closely linked: the former continuously influences the latter and vice versa, giving rise to an unrelenting succession of sounds and feelings, like a raging river. It is this unstoppable will to narrate that defines the fundamental traits of the album: the predominance of spoken parts over those in growl and choruses (magnificent is the one at the conclusion of the third part) and the continuous changes in tempo and genre (even venturing outside metal: listen to the saxophone in "Blinded Addict"). Although the album primarily falls within Progressive Death metal, it contains all kinds of contaminations (from Power to Industrial). In short, defining this work would mean limiting it.

Despite "Cybion" being slowly marred by the germ of repetition and offering the listener a truly disappointing finale, just where you would expect the crème de la crème, Kalisia have certainly hit the mark, producing an epic and varied work that the open-minded listener (essential, after all, to listen to the entire album in one go, as the band themselves recommend) will surely appreciate and, why not, praise. And if the next work is at this level, even waiting another decade will be bearable.