Australian Progressive Metal band Caligula’s Horse first formed in 2011 and since then have put out five full-length albums and one EP; their latest album titled Rise Radiant promises to be a continuation of their artistic growth.
The first song on the album, The Tempest, is a powerful start for the album, blending a myriad of instrumentals to create a song that sets the tone of the album perfectly. The song begins with a triumphant blend of guitars, bass, and drums that draws you in before breaking down into a catchy and headbanging tune. When Jim Grey’s vocals join in that shows his impressive vocal range as he not only has a great voice being able to sing in a clean and calm falsetto before bringing more power for the chorus.
The next track, Slow violence, takes on a groovier heavier sound that is a bit more straight forward but still retains a complex sound. It’s a very good track to sing along to as well and just bang your head along too with the excellent guitar riffs from lead guitarist Sam Vallen and Rhythm Guitarist Adrian Goleby. But Josh Griffins drum playing really kicks the song up a notch and gives it that extra oomph that will make it difficult to not tap your foot in time with.
The third track, Salt, kicks us off with a haunting piano that leads into the other instruments. This song takes on the sound of a ballad; being seven minutes long there are many compositional variations along the way that keep it fresh and seem shorter than its run time would suggest. Jim’s vocals display a great range of depth and emotion along with the instrumentals changing their rhythms and tempos up until the songs great crescendo.
Their fourth track, Resonate, is a calm and easy on the ears song consisting mainly of a slow methodical beat consisting a few instrumentals. Dale Prinsse’s bass in this song reminds me of 80’s city pop with a jazzy sound accompanied by a light drum beat and piano. It’s a short and sweet track that is a great break up from the rest.
Oceanrise, the fifth track, brings back the guitars and this time they’re dirtier than they’ve been in previous songs. The drums put down a good tempo for the song and the bass adds a thickness to the song but the highlights here are Sam and Adrian on Guitars with some sick riffs and sweeping solos.
Valkyrie again gives the guitars more grit though in a far more interesting way, the riffs are groovy and thick accompanied perfectly by the drums and bass to create a far more diverse sound. The piano that plays in the background adds a nice melody to the song and intermingles well with the other instruments.
Yet again the band slows things down with Autumn for another ballad, starting with an acoustic guitar before shifting into a more complex arrangement of guitars, drums, bass, and piano. The sound shifts many times over the song, with instruments changing tone and tempo that kept me engrossed for its entire seven-minute run time.
The last track titled The Ascent is the longest on the album with a running time of ten minutes. It’s the culmination of all the songs before it, at times being the heaviest song on the album and the softest as well. Tricky arrangements, sweeping guitar, melodic piano, it has it all and is a great note to end on though not the best track on the album for me.
Their great blend of sounds, variation and complexity lead to some absolute earworms that I find myself wanting to keep listening to.
The vocals remain clean the whole album and the songs never get extreme so if that is more your scene you might be disappointed but I’d still recommend you try it. The songs never overstay their welcome either with only three tracks clocking in over seven minutes.
Overall this album surprised me pleasantly, I enjoyed every track although Oceanrise and The Ascent will receive less listening time from me as I find the others to be more interesting. This album will definitely find a place on my playlist and I look forward to more of Caligula’s Horse’s output.
Release Year: 2020
Label: InsideOut Music
Category: Album
Country: Australia
Reviewed by Billy Poulopoulos
