CHRONICLES OF THE WAKING DREAM

ARCANE were an Australian band who released three studio albums from 2007 to 2015 before calling it a day. It was after this second release "Chronicles Of The Waking Dream" that vocalist Jim Grey joined a second band CALIGULA'S HORSE which was more in the Prog Metal realm than ARCANE. I had to laugh recently reading my review of ARCANE's final album from 2015 called "Known/Learned" where I mention in the opening paragraph that ARCANE sound similar to CALIGUAL'S HORSE, even the vocals. Haha, yes John they have the same singer so those vocals might sound the same. Obviously I didn't know this back in 2015 when I did that review. Oh boy.

ARCANE would break up after the mammoth "Known/Learned" where it was like albums from two different bands. A different bass player too on each side. And that second disc is full of ballads. Not my thing, and for whatever reason the band had had enough and vocalist Jim Grey would turn his complete focus now to CALIGULA'S HORSE. I prefer ARCANE. And my expectations here were low despite the very high ratings this 2009 release gets. I found out fairly quickly(2 spins in) that this record was on another level when compared to anything else by this band or the related band CALIGULA'S HORSE.

I just feel that this album is their sweet spot as it were. This clearly was the record fans loved out of the three they released. A surprisingly abundance of keyboards, even over the guitar. We get two guest female singers who add a lot, changing the flavour on two tracks. I like how they inserted these short "Silent Year" pieces(three of them) throughout this record. Besides these three short pieces we get a couple of long ones at 12 and 13 minutes respectively. There are four tracks that stood out for me so lets look at them.

First though the song "Glimpse" is a strange way to start the album as it opens with the sounds of a desperate man talking. He mentions May 26 a couple of times, and we also have a song called "May 26". The first song to really grab me was track three called "The Malice". The music and vocals get pretty intense but we get a 2 minute calm as well. "Secret" is another top four and this might be my favourite song for the guitar. Lots of piano too. The sounds of kids at recess can be heard before 6 minutes before a child sings "la la la" over and over, then it turns heavy. The atmosphere(synths) is incredible. The sound of children playing ends it.

Another top four is the next track "Fading", and at almost 12 minutes this is a ride. My final top four is the third and final interlude track called "The Third Final Year" with guest female vocals and plenty of atmosphere. May 26 is mentioned again. If you are a CALIGULA'S HORSE fan you should check this record out, this is my favourite Jim Grey vocal performance as well. Everything seems to work on this one, while with both of these bands I have had my issues with their other records. A solid 4 stars and a very enjoyable concept album.

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