CALIGULA'S HORSE — Moments from Ephemeral City (review)

CALIGULA'S HORSE — Moments from Ephemeral City album cover

Album · 2011 · Progressive Metal

4/5 · 2022-07-30
UMUR

"Moments from Ephemeral City" is the debut full-length studio album by Australian progressive rock/metal act Caligula's Horse. The album was independently released in April 2011. Caligula's Horse was formed in early 2011 by guitarist Sam Vallen and lead vocalist Jim Grey and the rather interesting band name was chosen by Grey and refers to Roman Emperor Caligula´s favorite horse Incitatus, of which many myths and stories exist. "Moments from Ephemeral City" is a self-produced effort, and Vallen is credited for producing, engineering, mixing, and mastering the album (in addition to writing most of the material and playing guitars).

The original version of the album features 7 tracks and a total playing time of 42:37 minutes, while the InsideOut Music reissue features the two tracks from the September 2011 "Colossus" EP as bonus material.

Stylistically the material on the album is alternative/progressive rock/metal. Grey has a strong voice and a passionate emotive delivery, which isn´t far removed from the voice and vocal style of Maynard James Keenan (Tool, A Perfect Circle). It doesn´t take more than a few seconds to realise how skilled and pleasant sounding a singer he is and how much he brings to the music. His harmonies and choirs are exquisite too. He often sings mellow and subdued, but the album does feature a couple of slightly more loud and aggressive vocal parts. Nothing extreme though, and the vocal part of the music is generally very melodic and catchy. It´s not overtly complex music, and it´s great to be able to sing along to many of the soaring choruses, but on the other hand it´s not simple vers/chorus structured music either. There is generally a bit more to it, and most tracks feature some pretty interesting and creative instrumental sections in addition to the melodic and hook laden verses and choruses.

The tracks are obviously composed by a guitarist, because "Moments from Ephemeral City" features loads and loads of beautiful acoustic parts, blistering guitar leads, heavy syncopated guitar riffs, and many creative guitar playing ideas, which make the album and adventurous and engaging listen throughout. The rhythm section are well playing too, and Caligula's Horse are arguably an incredibly talented bunch. Drummer Geoff Irish was also involved in progressive metal act Quandary with Vallen.

Considering that "Moments from Ephemeral City" is an independently produced release, it´s quite impressive in almost every possible way. The musicianship are on a high level on all posts, the songwriting is inspired, creative, and filled with emotion, and the sound production suits the material well. But if I have to make one small complaint it would actually be regarding the sound production, because the distorted guitar parts do stand a little weak in the soundscape, and a more meaty and heavy sound on those sections could have provided those parts with a bit more punch and bite and made the transitions from the mellow and melodic parts have more impact. I´ll tell you right away though, that it´s a minor issue and "Moments from Ephemeral City" is still overall a well sounding release featuring a professional sound production.

It´s safe to say that this is a quality release and a very impressive debut album by Caligula's Horse. I cannot believe that these guys contemplated disbanding after the release of "Moments from Ephemeral City", but apparently that was the case. Thankfully they decided to continue and solidified the recording lineup to tour in support of the album and also released the "Colossus" EP later in 2011. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is fully deserved.