Charcoal grace | CD | Caligula's Horse

Limited Digipak edition.

The band Caligula's Horse, hailing from Brisbane, has become one of the leading progressive metal bands in the world since their formation in 2011. With Charcoal Grace, their 6th studio album, the group returns with a combination of raw rock power and immense emotional depth.

Charcoal Grace is born out of the static hopelessness that the band and much of the world have been forced into in recent years due to the pandemic. It is an album that confronts the experiences and outcomes of this time and ultimately aims for catharsis - for a more hopeful future.

The title Charcoal Grace is described by the band as 'the dark allure and strange beauty of silence, silence, and loss.' This can be heard in the 10-minute opening track 'The World Breathes With Me,' a mission statement for the album's main themes. Musically, it is a work of contrasts, moving from the lightest ebb to the heaviest flow. The second track and first single from the album, 'Golem,' explores the struggle with the burden of expectation brought on by the pandemic. It is a heavy song with a focus on riffs and driving rhythms.

At the heart of the album is the four-part suite of the title track, a 24-minute opus that delves deeper into the album's core themes: connection, alienation, and the way humanity acts under compulsion. Musically, it covers all facets of the band's vocabulary, from heavy and dense, orchestrally accompanied intensity that embodies the darkest lyrical ideas of the songs, to gentle, acoustic moments of introspection.

After Caligula's Horse were unable to present their last album, Rise Radiant, to the world in recent years, they are now ready to unleash Charcoal Grace on the world in an unflinching manner. With this album, Caligula's Horse has made a statement, and they are ready for the world to listen.