It took me three uninterrupted listens to Partholón's latest release, The Ocean Pours In, to finally get it! Bear with me for a minute, because there is justification for such a dangerous opening comment within the realms of reviewing! Nowadays music is so throwaway, and so undervalued, that people's attention span seems to be wavering when it comes to seeking new music. It’s so easy today to find an album, and literally skip through its contents within two minutes and make an ill-fated and uneducated decision to decide that the album is not for you. Great albums need time. A great album has so many elements to it that it simply cannot be deciphered on a glancing listen. Give an album time to grow and reveal itself, and the rewards are infinite

So, lets fast forward beyond those three uninterrupted musical experiences I mentioned earlier, and with a little background to the album from the band themselves, “The Ocean pours In is a cathartic journey of life imitating art. From the Mary Russell seafaring tragedy to the death of an ancient tradition, five songs, spanning 37 mins, explore the hearts and minds of those that have come and gone. Married with the legend of Partholón, the tracks explore local history, mythology, tragedy and truth”.

From the coarse guitars and near tribal drums of the opener, Skin Of The Beast, the atmosphere is sparse and unsettling. There is a lot of space in the sound, a near-naked vocal, that is initially void of those crushing post metal riffs you come to expect from Partholón, and it catches you cold! However, with retrospection on my earlier comment, it’s a stroke of genius, because once the heft comes hammering at your door, its impact is devastating. The rasp and punishing vocal of Daniel Howard scrawls at your skin, and when the chorus, if you can call it that, comes thundering in, there is a harmony and a melody that cements the track, and makes for an absolute beast of an opener, and probably one of the best tracks the band have written to date.

This is followed by Gathered In Circles, which has this menacing and brooding undercurrent beneath it, all set under a slow tempo trudge, with big, pulverizing riffs courtesy of James Grannell and Barry Murray, that literally beat you to a pulp.

Then comes Pillars, a vicious and bass-led brute of a track that sends shock waves through your body and hammers cracks through the walls. The intensity is instant, and once “We were born between pillars” is chanted with all that emotion and vehemence, the atmosphere is electric. Add some mind-bending lead solos that shoot fire and fury, and you have the perfect storm right here! The track ebbs and flows through tempos and moods with hymn-like serenades colliding with deathly war cries, making Pillars possibly the second best track that Partholón have created!

Light Chamber brings with it tragedy and torment. The pain and the intent bleeds off every whispered word, drifting weightless upon the deftest of percussions, which is a far cry from the punishment that Alan Setter normally dishes out! However, as the track grows, those metronomic drum patterns along with the guitars joining in unison, creates a hypnotic and trance-like atmosphere that sucks you in and takes hold, right to the death.

The concept of The Water Pours In is based in some part around The Mary Russell, a trading boat that set sail from the harbour of Cobh, Ireland, on 8 February 1828, carrying a cargo of mules bound for Barbados. When it returned to Cobh on 25 June 1828, the ship's captain had brutally murdered seven of his crewmen. The closing track on the album, We Swallow The Ocean brings with it a seafaring shanty and a deep sense of loss and foreboding, echoing that ill-fated voyage. With a collective vocal rendition lamenting the loss of its crew, this track shows another side to Partholón. I mentioned the word melody earlier, and it’s used shrewdly here again, playing a huge part in the track's storytelling and its melancholic atmosphere. Closing with an old spoken passage, Partholón bring closure to a truly memorable album.

Not every band can evolve and grow, while staying true to themselves. Change and diversity are essential in keeping things fresh and relevant. Partholón have found that delicate balance between being true to their roots and progressing at the right pace, and in the right direction. That over-used saying, “their sound is maturing” could be used here, but it would do the band a disservice. Partholón continue to steam forward, and to use another old saying, this is their best release yet! ...but this time it’s true!