WOW… Just, WOW!
Those are the exact words I texted the HEAVY Editor in Chief when the new Caligula’s Horse – IN CONTACT was sent to me for review. Straight up, this album from one of Brisbane’s finest exports shines and emits so much beauty and magnificence that I feel my mere words will be absolutely unworthy and lack any appropriate depth contained herein.
But, here goes… I will start off this review with a brief description of the album as told by lead Caligula’s Horse’s guitarist Sam Vallen, “We decided to create a concept album, but one that came from a more personal place: one that would facilitate our creative needs wherever the journey took us. The broader concept is based on the nature of art – of what it is that sparks creativity and inspiration, a celebration of what connects us as human beings, the shared space across our many differences.”
Taking in four separate chapters, each one is dedicated to an individual and their own personal journey and how they express themselves through art. “Each of these artists are reaching for something more in their lives, and while disconnected entirely from one another, they are united by that reach: for a better life, but also for something intangible.”
So, how does this art imitating art imitating art become tangible you may ask? Well, from the eight-minute opener ‘Dream The Dead’ there was so much beauty and perfection cascading from my speakers I was getting lost in what I was hearing and not quite able to immediately and properly focus on being able to coherently write about what it was I hearing. Sam, Adrian, Dave & Josh, blindingly and without warning just explode forth as perfectly as a fan could hope to hear and experience and then…Jim Grey, whose vocals are nothing short of perfect and beautiful.
In Contact is prog rock at its finest and most captivating and proves with absolute clarity that Caligula’s Horse have reached a new high. With the songwriting, instrumentation, artwork and the magnificently polished and immaculate production.
Following on is the first single teaser ‘Will’s Song (Let The Colours Run)’ it is here we glance ever more deeply into the canvas being painted via our speakers. So what of it? The pallet of Caligula’s Horse is not only mesmerising but it is the blend of colours disguised cleverly as music that makes them and it so immaculate and perfect.
Shall I try to now break it down now even further between the layers? We are brilliantly yet delicately sped up and better prepared for the duration of the album. It is here the brushstrokes are more fervently and sporadically applied. And the outcome is fucking amazing.
From here no one song or aspect of In Contact wanes or loses clarity, momentum or ceases to become any less beautiful and perfect. The structure, feeling, format, passion and overall immaculate conception that is Caligula’s Horse latest canvas of perfection just keeps, thankfully and I am sure, unapologetically, giving.
Song number five is where I am blessed with my favourite song of the album, ‘Songs For No One’. And again I must reiterate…’WOW…Just, WOW! If there was some kind of perfect, beautiful and all-encompassing entity that would neatly and coherently depict Australian heavy music without being confronting than Caligula’s Horse is that entity and for that, I am so SO grateful.
