Tag: caligula’s horse

I have only had this for about a week now, and I have played it constantly. This is the brand new 2024 release from the home of some of the best Prog metal on the planet, in the land down under. I know we are only one month in to the new year but this has to be a strong contender for album of the year.

This is album number six (I think?) and I’m digging the heavier groove. Part of the conditions when you join the Prog ranks and get your Prog licence is you have to have a track that covers a whole side and they do this here in the title track Charcoal Grace, and it’s split into four parts. More of that later. On to the opening tune The World Breathes With Med, I’m blown away with everything about this. It’s got soaring vocal harmonies, equally soaring guitars, and some serious heavy grooves, man what a tune. The opening choppy riff and groove to Golem is just wonderful, an absolute beast of a tune.

Now back to the title track, I think uplifting has to be the word of choice here as the whole piece gives me a sense of joy. Of course, the track builds and drops and builds again as you’d expect from a track clocking in at just over 24 minutes, taking the listener on a wonderful aural experience, but that’s what I expect from a band as good as this. Now if Inside Out believed in releasing singles then Sail would be my choice. It’s such a beautiful song with a superb vocal melody and the solo is sublime.

Stormchaser follows and I would say this is what I love most about the band. One minute they have the most beautiful delicate passages and melodies then they mix the same melody with some real low end boom and killer instrumentation. The end seems to arrive so quickly with Mute but it’s a 12 minute ending. It has such a dramatic intro and opening. Again, we get the delicate vocal and playing that gives way to maximum heaviness with double kicks and killer staccato riffing.

Great ending for a great album!

10/10 from The Grooveman.

The Prog metal world is a deep dark world where there are so many bands vying for your attention that it’s easy to miss killer releases that just fall by the wayside. This album had been out two years before I managed to hear a tune whilst bandcamping one night. So I dived in and bought the whole album.

First song in The Tempest reminds of djent royalty Tesseract, especially with the heavy groove and melodic vocal. The solo is really cool by Sam Vallen. Killer opening track!!! Slow Violence has a very busy main riff and a wicked groove. I love crazy time signatures! Salt leads you into a false sense of security with a very delicate piano intro, and then insanity ensues with a crazy drum pattern and heavy riffs aplenty. That then subsides into a beautiful delicate vocal. WOW!!! Resonate is a beautiful atmospheric piece with a delicate soft vocal. Oceanrise has a superb choppy main riff, and the drum groove is wonderful. Valkyrie has an insane riff and groove at the intro; this is my favourite track. Freaking awesome!!! Autumn is another beautiful melodic piece driven by the main acoustic guitar. The Ascent is technically the last track on the record proper, and it’s crazy riff city. The track is full of dynamic light and shade moments.

On the vinyl you get two bonus tracks, which are both covers. The first is a great version of Peter Gabriel’s Don’t Give Up, and the next is a cover of Split Enz’ Message To My Girl. Both oversee the band putting their stamp on each of them. It’s worth going down the rabbit whole on bandcamp as there are some amazing bands out there.

9/10 from The Grooveman.