Caligula’s Horse – Charcoal Grace
Caligula’s Horse – Charcoal Grace
InsideOutMusic
Release Date: 26/01/2024
Running Time: 60:00
Review by Metalphysicist
9/10
According to the EPK, the title of Caligula’s Horse’s 6th album, “Charcoal Grace” means ‘the grim allure and strange beauty in stillness, silence, and loss’. Stillness is a state of mind to which I used to relate on a day-to-day basis. Even though most of my day is spent sleeping (like 7 hours a day) and hard work (like 10 hours a day), I need some time to spend by myself. No mobile notifications, oblivious to everything that is happening around me.
Eventually, I can manage to meditate for a couple of hours, keeping in touch with the silence, to be capable of sailing away on my own inner thoughts, feelings, sadness, and happiness, hoping that the next day will always provide me new experiences and challenges to enable myself to move on, no matter how dark and unexpectable those moments might be. Just in case you don’t know the difference between loneliness and stillness, loneliness means feeling that you wish to be with other people, but there is nobody to make your own feelings less painful to deal with. Stillness means embracing the sense that you feel good by yourself, mentally and sentimentally. In other words, you don’t need anybody to hold hands with to feel yourself calmly while breathing consciously.
On “Charcoal Grace”, Australia based Caligula’s Horse gives us the privilege to explore our grey thoughts and find beauty in the process. The band’s musical orientation is basically Progressive Metal – one of the heavy metal subgenres that usually takes the obvious virtuosity of the musicians too far. But on “Charcoal Grace” no musical passage sounds pedantic. What we listen to here is basically an album built by songs – as opposed to monotonous and long solos, or thousands of mid-sections breaks that seem to take ages to get back to the main song’s pattern before finally getting to the song’s ending. Caligula’s Horse aims to create just good songs, taking advantage of the band members’ abilities to fill the gaps on the arrangements and soundscapes with wealth and taste, combining with a good sense of melody.
That kind of composition helps the listener to appreciate the long running time of each song, instead of giving in to the temptation of abandoning listening to “Charcoal Grace” as a whole, out of sheer boredom. Allow me to highlight both singles taken from “Charcoal Grace” to make my point clear. On ‘The World Breaths With Me’, we get in touch with the great guitar tone in the beginning, benefitted by a Super-Chorus effect. This harmonizes perfectly with the synthesizer arrangements, creating a tense vibe in the process, to reach the riffs that arise to compass the heavier parts of the song, along with the drum and bass conductions. Unfortunately, I don’t know the music tempo measure, but it seems kind of complex to me. Anyway, the pre-chorus is very bright as the vocals introduce brightness and lovely melodies to ‘The World Breaths With Me’. Oh, I can’t help but mention the guitar solos… They sound so great, and it felt to me as if Sam Vallen’s complex solos owe a lot to Steve Vai guitar techniques.
On ‘Golem’ the band opted to flirt with Modern Metal conductions along with the ‘staccato vs melodic lines’ approach. The song captures all the instruments to bring them right in your face. ‘Golem’ is advised to be the first song to listen to, because it summarises what Caligula’s horse is all about.
Caligula’s Horse definitely meant business when composing and arranging all the songs on “Charcoal Grace” – with a big helping hand from the superb album production, which helps deliver what each song should sound like. In the centre of the album, the band shows a four piece Opus divided into songs that connect each to the other, turning the listening of ‘Charcoal Grace I’ , ‘Charcoal Grace II’ and ‘Charcoal Grace III, ‘Charcoal Grace IV’ both challenging and very enjoyable. I promise that the 24 minute length of the four songs in sequence will keep you busy, because “it covers every facet of the band’s vocabulary, from heavy and dense orchestral-accompanied intensity embodying the song’s darkest lyrical ideas, through to soft acoustic-driven moments and introspection.” (yeah, I quoted the text from the EPK, which perfectly describes the song’s musical diversity and lyrical approach. So why should I try to write the same impression on the songs, but in different words? Well, if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it ; )
The other thing that I’d like to share with you, my friends, is that listening to Caligula’s Horse 6th full-length album, “Charcoal Grace”, made me consider the possibility of achieving the faith and hope for better days – even if the scenario of the World tends to be dark and challenging over the next few years, engulfed in wars and the praise to hate speeches.
Here’s a tip taken from “Charcoal Grace”: you have both the power to express yourself through words, or just shut up and learn to enjoy your stillness. I suggest you choose the second option whenever it’s possible, because speeches are usually volatile and get lost in time and space. On the other hand, learning to know your inner self is a lifelong experience. If you will, take your first step by giving “Charcoal Grace” a shot.
TRACKINGLISTING:
01. The World Breaths With Me
02. Golem
03. Charcoal Grace I: Prey
04. Charcoal Grace II: A World Without
05. Charcoal Grace III: Vigil
06. Charcoal Grace IV: Give Me Hell
07. Sails
08. The Stormchaser
09. Mute
LINE – UP:
Jim Grey – lead vocals
Sam Vallen – lead guitar
Josh Griffin – drums
Dale Prinsse – bass
LINKS:
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