Steeped in Irish tradition with its melodies, time signatures and vocal style, “Abhainn” (River) is mixed with black, death and progressive elements. A concept album about water, “Abhainn” is a work of contrasting styles, traditions and atmospheres.

The journey starts out on a mystical note. As “An Fheoir” (The Grass) turns to “An tSúir”, so the haunting atmosphere develops a progressive intensity. By “An Bhearú” (The Barrow) it’s developed into technical metal with the promised mix of folk vocal style, progressive chorus and black-death metal growls. The scene is dark and pungent. “An Loai” (The Lee) is more substantial. The air is filled with dark clouds and battle-hardened black metal. A haunting vocal line provides an ethereal touch. All the time the riff and drum work remain dark. This is unusual. It’s all about epic atmospheres, and there’s plenty of that.

Dark, tempestuous metal, of which there is also plenty, is interspersed with shorter acoustic passages and mystical vocals. In terms of the balance, musically I was reminded a little bit of Persefone and maybe Agalloch, but less extreme and in this case respectful of a progressively-orientated Irish tradition. Sometimes it’s urgent. Sometimes it’s reflective. “Cumar an Dà Uisce” (Both Waters Will Meet), a short piece, starts reflectively with the sound of lapping water and a Mediterranean-style guitar, which leads us into a world of magic. By contrast “An t’Sláine” – I’d guess a reference to the River Slaney, the river of health – has a deep metal groove, which is mixed with dramatic progressive emotion and death metal. The short “Uaimh” (Cave) mixes acoustic calmness with the sounds of nature, and acts as prelude to “An t’Sionainn” (The Shannon), a strange atmospheric mixture of folk tale and metal, which I’m sure conveyed to the band than it did to me. I did like the acapella chorus at the end. And so to “An t’Suláin” (The Sullane, another Irish river) with its melancholic, doom-orientated beginning. As the lapping water can be heard, the piece continues quietly and sadly, and in funereal fashion to the end.

I can’t say that I was up with the story of this concept album other than it was to do with rivers, and the multitude of styles made it bewildering, but “Abhainn” is an interesting album.

(7/10 Andrew Doherty)

https://www.facebook.com/corrmhona

https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat315-corr-mh-na-abhainn-2021