NE OBLIVISCARIS

VENUE 170 russell, melbourne

DATE 10/05/19

SUPPORT CaliGula’s horse

AMelbourne winter is about to set in: the warm weather is receding, giving way to the city’s infamous chill. But you wouldn’t know it – 170 russell is positively scorching tonight.

opening in understated style with the title track of 2015’s Bloom, Caligula’s Horse take us on a journey across varied soundscapes, providing a dynamic ebb and flow that is simply beautiful.

the lead guitar work of Sam Vallen is clean and clear, simultaneously melodic and shred-worthy: he really is one of the best lead guitarists around today. Very much his equal and equivalent in the vocal department is jim grey, whose voice is soothingly powerful, rising to soaring melodic heights juxtaposed seamlessly with crooning, swooning lows, and his between-song banter is as familiar as a welcome old friend.

With the whole band on excellent form tonight, their set, while briefer than we’re accustomed to with them, reaches the majestic heights we’ve now come to expect from Caligula’s Horse.

Virtually everything about Melbourne’s ne obliviscaris is unique, and their monumental prog metal has interesting individual elements. tim Charles’ violin adds a discordant strangeness that offsets the heaviness beautifully and his clean vocals provide additional emotion. Dan Presland’s cannon-shot snare and precision around the kit are simply astonishing. overall, the sextet together make playing this scintillatingly complex music look ridiculously simple and effortless.

their live show has reached a new level of sleek, slick professionalism in recent years, and tonight they bring in extra lighting and production, resulting in a world-class arena metal show in a club that holds around 1,000 people. While we’re on that, Charles calmly announces that this is the band’s biggest-ever headline show before launching into Forget not, a song they wrote a decade and a half ago and is also their title song. the dynamics inherent in Xenoflux make your blood tingle, while intra Venus is a head rush. in fact, every song is a journey, every song is an opus.

this night is another triumph for aussie progressive heavy music, and one of the shows of the year so far.