Live Review: Caligula's Horse, Chaos Divine, Enlight

First for the night is Enlight, a female-fronted prog-rock band delivering a solid performance to a packed room full of anticipation. Punters are cramming through the doors to snatch a glimpse and some are still waiting outside as security slowly lets them.

Next is Chaos Divine, with ripping long vocals and back-up screaming. The five-piece prog-rock band sounds like Meshuggah and Karnivool have heavily influenced them. In between songs the lead singer, David Anderton, sips red wine and blames the government for the low internet speed, screaming “Suck my dick, Tony Abbott!”. The crowd applauds and claps along to the rhythm of the electric guitars when suddenly the sound-desk power cuts out. Two minutes in darkness and only the thud of drums as the sound guys quickly fix the power. Anderton asks, “What was I saying?” and a punter yells out, “Fuck Tony Abbott!” The crowd resumes clapping and the band charges into the next song. They finish the set with Invert Evolution, big riffs and the vibe in the room has lifted, clearly their best tune of the night going by the crowd’s headbanging.

Caligula’s Horse lead singer Jim Grey jumps on stage wearing a black singlet with white font that reads, “Real Australians Say Welcome”. The night explodes into high soaring vocals, swinging riffs and epic guitar solos, and the crowd erupts as though they have been saving all their energy for the headline act. They sing along to Bloom and the tempo doubles sending the crowd into a moshing frenzy.  

This technically proficient quintet is extremely tight and at times stillness is needed to really take it all in. Grey is an exceptional frontman delivering a high energy performance that connects with his audience. He requests the lights are turned up a little so he can see everyone and asks them to jump around together like people did in the '90s. His crowd willingly does so to the intro of Daughter Of The Mountain, riding the riffage wave with ease. Grey uses a lot of falsetto in his voice and bass player Dave Couper’s backing vocals are rich and heighten the overall sound. Ripping guitar solos and the occasional double kick assault raises the pit’s energy and their dedicated crowd sings along to Atlas and Firelight with gusto.