Caligula’s Horse bring their Charcoal Grace to NYC for epic night

Written and Captured By | Kevin McGann

Australian progressive metal band Caligula’s Horse celebrated their recent release to a packed house at NYC’s Gramercy Theatre. It was just two weeks ago the metal giants from down under released their sixth studio album, Charcoal Grace, and embarked on a North American tour with fellow progressives, Earthside. Fans were lined up outside long before the doors opened, and when they did the Gramercy filled up quickly.

Before they could take the stage though, New England-based Earthside came out and got the crowd revved up with their own brand of symphonic, cinematic, hard hitting progressive metal. Earthside creates a wall of sound that’s heavy yet melodic thanks to the combined talents of the four key band members. Jamie Van Dyck on guitars, programming, and additional keyboards, Ben Shanbrom on drums and backing vocals, Frank Sacramone on keyboards, synthesizers, programming, and percussion, and Ryan Griffin on bass and backing vocals. They released their debut album, A Dream In Static, in 2015 and the critically acclaimed follow-up, Let the Truth Speak, in 2023 and the set featured tracks from both albums with recorded vocal tracks.

See more photos of Earthside HERE

After a short break, the lights went down and Caligula’s Horse took the stage and opened with ‘The World Breathes with Me’, the opening track to Charcoal Grace. The 10-minute opus then led into the second track on the album, ‘Golem’. From there the setlist featured fan favorites from previous albums, like ‘Slow Violence’ and ‘The Tempest’ from Rise Radiant, and Bloom’s title track as well as ’Marigold’.

See more photos of Caligula’s Horse HERE

It was on those older tracks where you could see and hear fans marvel at original band member Sam Vallen’s virtuoso guitar playing. And while the band has gone through some line-up changes since their 2011 formation, the current line-up features Vallen along with original founder Jim Grey on vocals, Dale Prinsse on bass, and Josh Griffin on drums. Each of them a master at their instrument and Grey’s vocals soared above the mayhem. Closing out the set were the last two tracks on Charcoal Grace, ‘The Stormchaser’ and ‘Mute’, which fit in perfectly with the older material. Before they called it a night though, the guys took to the stage to bring out ‘Graves’ from their fourth studio album, 2017’s In Contact, for a truly epic encore.

Photos By | Kevin McGann