CALIGULA’S HORSE

Brisbane’s progressive rockers fail to seek out a port in their storm

Another export to add to the pile of excellent progressive bands from Oz, Caligula’s horse have gone full prog with In Contact. Its djenty riffs and allover-the-place rhythms aren’t a million miles away from 2015’s Bloom, while the soft crooning on Dream The Dead and Love Conquers All is reminiscent of the dream-state style of Tesseract. The problem – if you can call it that – with prog is that you rarely experience an anchor. This is an album with multitudinous sonic switches that, while thankfully not a noodle-fest, can leave you begging for a catchy chorus. Even the big, fat, epic intro of Fill My Heart is regrettably short-lived while the threeminute spoken tirade towards the end is just weird. But when all is said and done, In Contact is a finely tuned, inventive effort that bristles with crystal-sharp clarity.

FOR FANS OF: Karnivool, Tesseract, Animals As Leaders

HOLLY WRIGHT