“So tell yourself there’s peace on Earth.”
Back in the summer of 2020, I think fondly of a progressive metal awakening I had that introduced me to a plethora of artists I eventually grew to love. Two stood out to me in particular, however. First was the excellent Danish quartet, VOLA. And the other was Caligula’s Horse. The more expansive discography of Caligula’s Horse gave me a whole lot to dig into, and their 2020 release of Rise Radiant was one of my favorites of that year. It should be without any surprise that I’ve been eagerly anticipating a follow-up, and thankfully the band is giving us just that in their upcoming 6th studio album, Charcoal Grace, out this Friday via Inside Out Music.
As I mentioned, Caligula’s Horse discography is expansive, but not only because of the amount of material they’ve put out; the content within each release is filled to the brim musically and thematically. One glance at the track listing shows a 4-part title track that spans nearly 25 minutes. The album opens peacefully, however, with chimes accenting fantasy-esque riffs, of which we’ll see again. “The World Breathes With Me” opens up into a more typical progressive metal sound. Vocalist Jim Grey chimes in just under 3 minutes into the cut with his signature, soaring vocals. Lyrically, the opener deals very much with taking a look at the world and portraying it as a war-torn and sorrowful place. It’s a very solid Caligula’s Horse track, though not my favorite. I do love the refrain, as it shows how Jim has a lot of cool vocal ideas left to display. The outro is also energetic and “I breathe, and the world breathes with me” is the type of metaphoric lyric I enjoy from the band. Despite that, I think it’s a safer cut compared to a lot of their other material.
“Golem” maintains the pace of the opener’s outro with a heavy, rhythmic opening. The track very much keeps this style for its runtime. It’s another example of just a solid Caligula’s Horse track. I find it interesting how the vocals are being sung to the Golem itself, with the Golem seeming to have some higher purpose with respect to the world. If “The World Breathes With Me” speaks on a loss of faith in humanity and the world, then perhaps the Golem is the answer to that. Jim also throws down some harsh vocals for what I believe is his first time. It’s fitting, as the stunted, punchy verses and heavier instrumental could only ask for screamed vocals.
Then begins the heart of the album, the aforementioned four part title track: “Prey”, “A World Without”, “Vigil”, and “Give Me Hell.” The first line of “Prey” is “This is where we find ourselves, too far gone to save.” Given my analysis of “Golem”, the title track is a response, or look into the world that the Golem wrought. Compounded with the fact that the band has stated Charcoal Grace to mean “the grim allure and strange beauty in stillness, silence, and lost”, I’d wager that the Golem greatly affected the world after losing faith in it during “The World Breathes With Me.” It has a bit of a start-stop-start first couple minutes, where the song truly starts after a harmonizing mashup of Jim’s vocals. There are a couple softer, more musical moments that make this song pop, and I think the chorus is strong, but a lot of the verses fall flat for me. The instrumental ascends in its final moments before lulling in Part 2, and I think the end and transition there was well done. However, after many run-throughs of the album, “Prey” is too much fluff, for me.
In contrast, the beginning, and honestly, entirety of “A World Without” is stellar. There’s a quaint vibey intro that leads nicely into Jim putting out some impressive falsetto vocals as they harmonize with a different vocal cut in the background. This entire section is ripe with emotion. The bridge is an electronic bass mixed with some gentle acoustic guitar plucking before Jim comes back, and it’s overall great musicianship. Rounding “A World Without” out with a great guitar solo puts a pin in some vintage Caligula’s Horse emotional cut-type music. And to touch briefly on Part 3, “Vigil”, it is very much a subdued interlude between parts 2 and 3. It adds to the flow of the album, and it’s about it.
Then comes Part 4, “Give Me Hell.” Fitting title, as the instrumental, and Jim, sound much more evil from the get go, here. This style comes back about half way through the track before it repeats again albeit with a chugging guitar accompanying it during that time. Then the last minute is also a heavier section with some technical riffage. All that I’ve mentioned are strong parts in the title track finale, but there also felt like a lot of filler, or wasted space over the 6 minutes here, and I’m left walking away from “Charcoal Grace” (the tracks) without a feeling of satisfaction. The connection of the tracks was present, but the musicality was below the bar compared to a lot of what the band has put out, at least for me. Luckily, however, the best of the album is yet to come.
“Sails” is another slower cut, but the verses feel more emotional and the vocal mixing feels closer to the mic and more personal. The track also returns the fantasy type riffs that I mentioned would return. There’s a dance between these and the intimate vocals I mentioned, and it just makes for a powerful, yet soft track. We get some great guitar chops during the bridge, where it has all the heart of rock shows from the 80s. The placement of this track is also perfect as it juxtaposes “Give Me Hell” as it brings a lighter tone, more full of hope and recovery.
Following that is “Stormchaser” which starts out with chaotic, almost piano-like chords leading into a bass driven pre-chorus. Then the chorus crashes in with a lot of oomph and passion. It’s ethereal but also epic. The verses for the rest of the track don’t hit as hard, but it’s still strong and complete, and the synth elements all over the track are a welcome addition. The ending verse, however, has an argument for one of the best moments on the album in general. “How could you be so god damn blind?” sung by Jim echoes in my mind after the amazing delivery.
Lastly comes the behemoth of a track, “Mute”, clocking in at exactly 12 minutes. I’ll say at the top of this that I think the run time is justified. It starts sounding huge with confident vocals by Jim leading into haunting, foreboding instrumentals. This unfortunately, abruptly, changes into a super stripped back verse, but then rebounds, thankfully, with more energetic verses and nice riffage. A falsetto harmony by Jim and some accented keys mark the end of the first half of the track, a pleasant note to end that on. A quaint transition assisted by some wonderful flute leads in the back half which is largely instrumental focused and ties up the album nicely, albeit without a solidified ‘wow’ moment for me.
As I mentioned, I’ve been anxiously anticipating another Caligula’s Horse release. Each album has it’s own themes, tones and motifs that make up their identities. My thing with Charcoal Grace is that, despite the band never being super heavy, it is the softer, more somber sibling of the six LPs. That has value and it is an objectively impressive piece of music regardless, but I can’t help but feel a bit underwhelmed. If I were to compare a lot of Charcoal Grace to Rise Radiant, the latter is chock full of moments that are beautiful and climactic, and also more varied despite that. Charcoal Grace is a worthy addition to their discography, but not close to my favorite.
6.5/10
You can pre-order the album here before it releases this Friday, January 26th.