The third album of the Australian band Caligula's Horse, titled Bloom (see review) and released in 2015, was an excellent prog rock metal album. Although it ended with a real “disappointment”, being a dull predictable acoustic track. On the new album called In Contact the band from down under “surprises” me with three utterly boring, almost nerve racking, acoustic ballads called Love Conquers All, Capulet and Inertia And The Weapon Of The Wall. The latter, a complete superfluous track, is only filled with spoken lyrics and it clocks almost three minutes. So far the “bad” news about the new album of Caligula's Horse, as the rest of the song material is really amazing. Dream The Dead opens this album in a fantastic way as it is an epic prog opus of the highest musical order; listen and weep! Another highlight is the fifth track Songs For No One, which is filled with lots of lovely guitar solos and breath taking melodies, read: prog rock music at its best! But Caligula's Horse definitely saves the best for last, as this album ends with the killer track Graves, an epic prog rock/ metal monster of more than 15 minutes! In Contact is a really dynamic album, filled with excellent accessible, almost catchy, melodies, superb guitar leads, solos and hooks and more than brilliant vocals. In Contact will give this band a well-deserved commercial boost as this record marks an amazing musical evolution. Personally I find it a shame that the album features three rather boring acoustic tracks but luckily there is always the skip button on my CD player; the rest of the album is really remarkable stuff; check it out! **** Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
