Following a decade long gap since their last studio album Seven Circles, Canada’s The Tea Party have returned with a collection of twelve typically epic tracks.
Massive both in terms of performance and production, The Ocean At The End is the band’s eighth album and the first since reuniting back in 2011.
These days the ubiquitous Jeff Martin can be seen relentlessly touring our shores, armed only with an acoustic guitar and gracing mainly more intimate stages. Whilst this may have gone some way to scratching fan’s collective itches, it is back fronting The Tea Party where the man’s charisma shines the brightest.
Opener ‘The L.O.C‘ is classic in your face Tea Party, with Martin’s “twisting and turning, the fire is burning” demanding our instant attention.
‘The Black Sea‘ is a standout number with a potent metal riff dropping back to something more sludgier, a sound that captures an aura of impending desperation. “Waves crashing around you, you’re losing the light” sums up the feeling perfectly. This is the first of a few references to the ocean across the album. It plays a part elsewhere in ‘The Maker‘ and in the grandiose title track ‘The Ocean At The End‘.
Littered all throughout the journey the trademark Eastern influences seep through. It wouldn’t be a Tea Party record without such distinguishable moments as the dramatic build ups to ‘Cypher‘ and ‘The 11th Hour‘. The middle of the record serves as a pleasant diversion in the form of the stripped back acoustica of ‘Black Roses‘, superbly driven by slide guitar, and ‘Brazil‘, introduced with a faded in percussive jam- clearly influenced by an excursion to that part of the globe.
Yet again with ‘The Ocean At The End‘ The Tea Party have proven themselves to be a band that doesn’t operate by half measures. Every track is delivered with nothing less than full intensity. Towards the back end of the album The Cass Corridor and Water’s On Fire were the only moments that fell a little flat but otherwise this is the album diehard fans have been eagerly awaiting.