CHARCOAL GRACE

I never really was too big on Caligula's Horse. I found their albums quite alright, but never too special for me to want to revisit them. They are kinda within the same threshold as bands like Leprous and Haken, being these newer prog metal groups revitalizing the genre in new ways, however even though I do enjoy some of their songs I never really thought they brought something new and fresh to the table, or something that really wowed me personally. However, with the turn of the decade in 2020, they would release Rise Radiant, an album that brought their usual sound and mixed djent with it. I thought, though, that album to be still alright, but I could certainly note the group moving to the right direction. Four years later after that turning point, they would release Charcoal Grace in January 26th of this year, and not only do they improve in a major way with their new found love for djent, but also infused some stellar greatness with the seams of this album to make it my personal favorite of their releases.

This is a six track album, though the big title epic in between is split up into multiple songs, kind of like what Marillion did with Fuck Everyone And Run, and An Hour Before It's Dark with their big epics. Probably the only "bad" thing about this stellar release, but I can certainly live with it, and there are two also very stellar bigger tracks of The World Breathes With Me and Mute that aren't split up, so I am not too bothered by it.

So what I appreciated from Rise Radiant was their readiness to change things up into more of a djent kind of style, and they continue that forward. The thing that is evident upon this fact is the lead single of Golem, my favorite track off the album. It has meaty, chuggy guitars, whilst also having that particular Caligula sound that they carried throughout their career. I really enjoy this song, as it just feels like a true improvement of their sound in not just a total shift, but in an evolutionary upwards motion. Listen to this song in comparison to something like Slow Violence or Marigold. Certainly similar sounding, but there is a clear maturity that exists within Golem, and the rest of the album that I never quite found within the rest of their projects. For that matter, I certainly appreciate it a lot more.

This maturity probably has something to do with the band's lead guitarist, Sam Vallen, taking his hand at producing and mixing the album, and he is really good at what he does here. There is a certain ethereal energy that goes through each of the songs, particularly the longer, and some of the more quieter tracks. I really enjoy this very floaty, almost mystical production, and I bet if he continues to produce albums for the band he'll get better and better.

However, I think the real meat this album does right is a new genre mix within the Caligula sound. Adding on top of the djent, they followed a bit of what groups like Earthside had done and combined post rock within the mix. Now, this post rock is rather small, admittedly, only really noticeable in the bigger tracks, and it certainly isn't as highly invigorating as what Earthside had done, but there is no denying that this band has been exploring a bit more textures and ambience to make something very beautiful. The title track, the 22 minute epic of Charcoal Grace shows this more post rock direction better, as whilst it is very metal and heavy hitting, there is an underlying layer of beauty that I find to hold similar feelings to groups like Mogwai and We Lost The Sea. You can hear it a lot more within the parts of A World Without and the beginning of Give Me Hell. Honestly, this is very awesome for me, not only as a prog fan, but as a post fan too. Seeing a band experiment, at least slightly with more genres into their mix is super fun to hear, especially for a band that has been as long running as Caligula.

I really have zero idea if there is anything really negative to say about this album, as each track holds some very great substance. Maybe Sails and The Stormchaser is a bit forgettable within the mix, but man that guitar solo on Sails certainly is powerful, and The Stormchaser just has a lot of oomph within its five minutes that I cannot help but to still hold at least a lot of love for the two of them.

It is a bit odd for me to have a masterpiece this early in the year, since usually the really good stuff comes a bit later, usually in the summertime, but man January has turned out some stellar stuff, and Charcoal Grace is amongst the heavy hitters of this year already. If we get something like Charcoal Grace, I wouldn't be surprised if this year ends up being as universally loved as 1974 or 1997. Definitely 100% give this one a shot, even if you may not quite enjoy progressive metal I can certainly say this is a record that could really appeal to anyone. Don't quote me on this if I end up being wrong, but I think this may be Caligula's Horse's magnum opus right here. The band can only move upwards from here.

Best tracks: Golem, Charcoal Grace, Mute

Least best tracks: Sails, The Stormchaser

Galloping gallantly over the vast plains of the metal universe, Australia's CALIGULA'S HORSE has nurtured the qualities of a fine thoroughbred in the prog world where the murky bardo area of progressive metal and progressive rock merge into brackish waters. These Aussies have been in the top tiers of the prog metal world for well over a decade now releasing a series of critically acclaimed albums with radiant rise to the upper echelons of prog metal royalty with the combo effect of 2015's "Bloom" in tandem with 2017's "In Contact." The band evoked a larger than life prog metal congeries of tricks and trinkets that has allowed the band to stand out amongst the legions of progger metalheads vying for a piece of the action but these crafty chaps from Brisbane have always been a step or two ahead of the competition.

Changes are what the 2020s are all about the CALIGULA'S HORSE has certainly not eschewed its own series of challenges. In the last four years since "Rise Radiant" was released the band has officially seen guitarist Adrian Goleby exit from the team and now officially a quartet with Sam Vallen handling all guitar duties on the band's sixth studio album CHARCOAL GRACE which still rock all those Steely Dan influenced add2 chords like no other. CHARCOAL GRACE gracefully offers nine tracks at 62 minutes of playing time and although the famous twin guitar attacks have now been completely abandoned for a more streamlined approach, the album continues the plethora of polyrhythms, the clusters of complexity and the same overall atmospheric ambience meets djent-ish chugging sessions all dressed up with Jim Grey's fragile vocal intricacies.

Taking on a more Riverside meets Leprous demeanor, CALIGULA'S HORSE has traded the dueling axe action for a more keyboard saturated series of drifting cloud covered atmospheres that find heftier contrasting bouts of prog metal reinforcement. While tamped down a few notches from top peak prowess mode, CHARCOAL GRACE delivers a rather predictable procession of prancing prog rockers like a well-trained steeplechaser navigating a predictable course of action. The band plays it safe and sticks to the playbook for the most part with the expected prog by numbers approach that many a modern prog metal band has fallen victim to and an approach that aims to drift subtly into a more "commercial" acceptance by taming the rough around the edges aspects while amping up the melodic contrapuntal resonance of the complimentary layers of instrumentation.

"The World Breathes With Me" offers CALIGULA'S HORSE fans an instant comfort zone game plan with lush atmospheric developments before erupting into the chugga-chug marathon of djent-fueled guitar plucks and corresponding bass and drum obsequiousness. Add an obligatory four part concept suite of the title tracks and you can't go wrong but the problem is that at this point in the 21st century, this style of prog metal sounds completely out of fashion and in many ways bands such as CALIGULA'S HORSE have become a fossilized self-induced retro scene of their own idiosyncratic making. Is it bad to continue to make music that doesn't "progress" like the term "progressive" implies? Well, that's the million dollar question of course and left to the individual to decide for him / herself but for yours truly there comes a time where it sounds like a band is beginning to regress and there, my musical friends, is the pasture CALIGULA'S HORSE seems to have retired to after a fruitful run on the racetrack.

It's always difficult for me to be too harsh on bands that have found a comfort zone and a fanbase and have a difficult time balancing the progression part with the cash in to make a living in an increasingly more expense planet to reside upon but at this point this type of prog metal just sounds generic to me and therefore no matter how well played and how perfectly executed in every way, what really matters at the end of the day is how do the tracks speak to me and after sitting through CHARCOAL GRACE and imbibing the sonic frequencies that bathe my very soul, i am left feeling indifferent and unmoved by the dramatic series of sounds that are supposed to evoke some sort of reaction. To be honest, the airy fairy sounding bands in the prog metal world never have appealed to me as much as the more adventurous thrill seekers but every once in a while a band like Pain of Salvation or Leprous proves me wrong with instantly contagious emotionally connective composiitons. Unfortunately CALIGULA'S HORSE doesn't evoke that same visceral reaction and CHARCOAL GRACE does even less than previous offerings. Not a bad album by any means but sounds a bit too middle of the road for my liking.

Australia's finest prog metal band surely has to be Caligula's Horse, having released their sixth studio album 'Charcoal Grace' via Inside Out Music in January of 2024, continuing their line of work of incorporating the aesthetics of djent into their signature style of melancholic yet powerful blend of heavy progressive music. Sam Vallen, Jim Grey and co. have this time organized their album around longer pieces, bookmarked by two longer epic tracks, while spreading the 25-minute-long title track over four parts in the middle of the album. While the band has done longer pieces throughout their discography, they have never before presented their work in such a way, which is an interesting decision, also making this album their longest running one to date, surpassing 2017's 'In Contact' by some seconds.

The sound of this album does not diverge too much from what the band did in the beginning of the decade with 'Rise Radiant', their pandemic album, whereas a stronger djent influence was becoming more prevalent, focusing a lot on technique and resulting in a more compressed and massive sounds, in comparison to their cleaner and more "stripped" dynamics from before (2015-17). It has to be mentioned that the vocals are as good as always, Jim Grey is undoubtedly a very powerful vocalist who is able to elevate the compositions and bring them a very eerie, majestic and emotive edge. Sam Vallen displays his signature guitar sounds serving the band just perfectly, while the rhythm section is mostly entirely delightful and well-done.

It is the compositional aspect of the tracks on 'Charcoal Grace', however, that seems to have been overshadowed by the more technical approach, as the two tracks bookmarking the album (and clocking in at ten and twelve minutes respectively) get slightly diluted over the course of their playtime, as if there was not a clear direction or a clear vision of where these songs should arrive. Surely they are packed with graceful riffs, intense hooks, and gorgeous vocal melodied, but they seem to be less focused than previous longer compositions done by C-Horse, who had cemented themselves as masters of suspenseful heavy progressive music, always leading you to a very powerful climax through the band members' manifold creative ways, as they had perfectly achieved that with 'In Contact'. This aspect of their music seems to be mostly missing here.

It is recaptured mainly and seemingly in the shorter tracks like 'Golem' or 'The Stormchaser', two highlight tracks. The title track, dissected into four pieces, as ambitious and powerful it may seem, fails to leave a lasting impression of a strong, oriented epic song, perhaps missing a very recognizable and memorable underlying thread or theme, perhaps being occasionally overplayed. While it has its highlights, whether it be the beautifully intricate introduction to 'Prey', or the acoustic tranquility of 'Vigil', or even the chorus build-up of 'Give Me Hell', it is too fragmented, which could also be why it was presented as four tracks rather than a continuous long piece.

In essence, 'Charcoal Grace' is a good and strong album, nicely ornamented, but mostly lacking the punch and focus that the band's usually got, and it will probably go on to be one of the more polarizing releases by Caligula's Horse.