'You should leave thinking to a horse' is an old Dutch peasant wisdom. The infamous Roman emperor Caligula took this very seriously and appointed his favorite horse Incitatus as senator. Caligula's Horse, the Australian band that named itself after this, combines horsepower with thoughtful virtuosity. With elements from neo-prog and metal, this quintet manages to avoid lurking clichés with raging
… tempi and complex playing, without losing sight of the melody. Singer Jim Gray has a clear and smooth voice. It is striking how (as with many prog bands) he does not wait for a more drawn-out passage or chord progression to fill in vocally, but goes fully into the complexity and effortlessly places his melodies on the most deviant time signatures and complicated breaks. That Caligula ' s Horse never sounds forced is their strength. And those who manage to endure this musical tour du force will be treated to the purely beautiful closing mid-tempo ballad Atlas - Revisited. (MR)more
