MOMENTS FROM EPHEMERAL CITY

In the seemingly endless sea of clinical, Dream Theater worshipping prog metal that's released, it's always nice to have bands like Caligula's Horse to help balance this out. The band's debut album, Moments From Ephemeral City demonstrate a different sort of feel compared to bands such as Dream Theater, still keeping a lot of the technicality and soloing that the genre is so known for, but having it be far more melodic and emotional, more understated in general. This album is far from perfect however, as this contains a fairly mixed bag of songs, along with being structured quite oddly, instrumental tracks spread throughout and ending the album on one of these, provided you don't listen to the bonus tracks. Even with this said, I still find the band and this album to be a breath of fresh air, especially when compared to the countless prog metal bands that are infinitely more generic.

One reason why I find this album quite good despite the uneven nature of it comes down to the fact that while it doesn't always stick the landing, when the album displays something good, it's really good, especially This City Has No Empathy and Alone In The World. This City Has No Empathy starts the album off with its most emotionally powerful moment, the beautiful melodies of the chorus having a certain punch to them despite how pleasantly it's sung, especially with the vocal harmonies giving it a certain ethereal quality. I also love how this album contains deceptively heavy riffs throughout, occasionally even incorporating a djent style with the frequent rhythmic guitar chugging, although there's still plenty of time for soaring guitar solos. Alone In The World is similarly exceptional, showing the 2 extremes of the band, the first half of it being fast and heavy, while the second half takes on a sombre tone that simply takes my breath away. This duality is what really brings out the song however, as both halves would not work anywhere near as well without the other half complementing and juxtaposing it, with an extremely emotional guitar solo tying everything together.

The softer moments on the album tend to also be quite good, SIlence especially, which while somewhat repetitive, has the bittersweet tone of it carry it extremely far, especially given how once again, the band backs everything up with some excellent melodies. My main gripe with the album is how little I find the instrumentals to add to it, yet there are 3 of them on the album. Singularity is essentially based around a single, albeit cool riff as solos are performed over the top of it, it's not bad, but I can't really call it a particularly valuable part of the album, same with Ephemera, despite some vocals near the start. Calliope's Son has a fun, quirky beginning, but again, I don't find myself loving this track all that much, despite its quality being higher than the other 2 present here. I'd strongly recommend listening to a version of this album that includes bonus tracks, as it really ties this album together far better than it otherwise would be left, as Colossus is a great, passionate song that actually displays a somewhat more mature sound by the band, while Vanishing Rites manages to be a highlight. This song starts off with a fun melody that slightly reminds me of a song that you could hear parents singing to their kids, albeit lyrically darker in this case. This melody develops into galloping riffs and another dose of heaviness in general, the delivery of it providing some intensity while maintaining the more understated nature of the band as a whole.

Overall, while this album at times feels somewhat all over the place in terms of quality, with some songs such as Alone In The World being prog metal classics in my eyes, while other songs are extremely forgettable, Equaly Flawed so much so that I forgot to mention it until now. Despite this, I like a lot of what this album does, the more melodic, emotionally charged nature of the album, similar to Karnivool, provides a more fresh take on a genre that can often feel very mediocre with its onslaught of Dream Theater or Animals As Leaders wannabes, and I'd highly recommend this album, even though their later ones get much better.

Best tracks: This City Has No Empathy, Alone in the World, Vanishing Rites

Weakest tracks: Ephemera, SIngularity, Equally Flawed

Verdict: While quite uneven in terms of quality, quite a umber of the songs easily being removable without much change to the album, I'm still quite a fan of the approach taken on this album, despite the Karnivool similarities being quite apparent. Their later albums are better than this, but this is nonetheless worthy of a couple of listens in my opinion.