After the symphonic and ambient progressive of 'Karfagen' and 'Nova Cascade', I'm taking you to the land of kangaroos but this time for progressive metal with the Australians 'Caligula's Horse' who released their new album 'Charcoal Grace' at the end of January 2024, the latest 'Rise Radiant' already dating from 2020. In the movement of current artists of this style, I am thinking in particular of 'Haken', 'Leprous' or 'Pain Of Salvation', they continue to give us imaginative progressive and, although they are tagged metal, it would be reductive, like the groups mentioned above, to limit them to this style because 'Charcoal Grace' is again here to prove it to us by sweeping across different styles quite widely. Obviously, the other side of the coin is that this kind of album of extraordinary density requires numerous listens to extract its full richness.
We get to the heart of the matter with the 10 minutes of 'The World Breathes With Me' which literally takes you by the guts with a set of tensions and relaxations highlighting 'Jim Grey' who gives us a magnificent performance vocal by perfectly adapting his singing to this lush musical construction, the break in the middle of the title bringing a breath to the whole to start again to prepare the admirable guitar solo of 'Sam Vallen'. More direct while maintaining a complex rhythmic construction, 'Golem' continues in this percussive style which, this time, makes me think of the firepower of the Swedes from 'Soen'. The centrepiece of the album is the title song which unfolds its four parts and which is a sublime progressive labyrinth of 24 minutes taking us through all kinds of emotions made of striking contrasts: it is the kind of composition which requires linger there to draw out all the richness and you navigate a succession of roller coasters, going for example from a whispered song from 'Jim Gray' to an explosion of power with fabulous guitar solos from 'Sam Vallen'. After this progressive epic strong in emotion, 'Sails' continues our beautiful journey in a more peaceful atmosphere and at a slow tempo, while maintaining a beautiful emotional force, 'Jim Grey' touching us to the depths of our being and 'Sam Vallen' drives the point home at the end of the track with a new masterful guitar solo. With 'The Stormchaser', we find all these overwhelming contrasts between verse and chorus, the finale further raising the emotional level with a gripping melody that gives me goosebumps on many occasions (see the video above). And to finish this magnificent album, the 12 minutes of 'Mute' are again a real treat: the beginning is very calm and we let ourselves be carried away by the singing of 'Jim Grey' on a captivating melody, the airy flute adding to this feeling of serenity, then we find a sudden rise in power which retains a certain melancholy thanks to beautiful melodic lines and, halfway through, it is again a total break for an instrumental section of great beauty in which the flute us accompanies again, the finale being of rare intensity, literally and figuratively.
In summary, the Australians of 'Caligula's Horse' strike a big blow at the start of 2024 by offering us a masterful album which demands to be tamed, listen after listen, to become a sort of musical holy grail of progressive metal by taking you on an intense and gripping journey of extraordinary emotional intensity... | |
