“Screaming Man” mixes together Rise Against and Against Me! to come up with a style of punk music that is heavily grounded in the “true” emo genre. Couple that sound with a guitar line that seems most proper in Queens of the Stonie Age tracks, and “Screaming Man” is a track that is dense to an almost-Rush degree. Partisan is not a band that is happy continuing the existing order of things, as all facets of the band (bass, drums, guitar, and vocals) are all given equal time to shine in practically each of “The Gothic and the Gospel’s” 16 tracks.
During a song like “Music is the Weapon”, the vocal presence is scaled down to an almost-instrumental output, allowing individuals to hear the intelligent arrangements of Partisan as clear as day. The ability of the band to create such beautiful music makes a song like “Music is the Weapon” something that turns itself into a dance track, as the nest of bass guitar and drumming that takes center stage here on the track will grab at listeners’ hearts and pull. Perhaps most interesting in a track like “Music is the Weapon” is the fact that tribal rhythms are used to a high deal of success during the track. The inclusion of this different sound does not sound tacked on in the least, and just increases Partisan’s stock that much more. “Money Changes Everything” may just be the pinnacle of tracks on “The Gothic and the Gospel”, as it rivals even the most flighty Pink Floyd tracks in sheer number of things attempted in a four minute track. For my money (pun intended), I would have to pick up Partisan’s CD well before I would grab an Against Me! CD.
The compositions are richer and better thought-out, and the overall sound of the band is much more friendly and accommodating to a wider swath of society. Even when the band comes through with a slower opening to their track (as is the case during “Farther North”), it only takes a few seconds before the band innovates and speeds up the track to create a rhythm that will get people moving while their brain is firing at a hundred miles a minute. Partisan has came out of nowhere and with “The Gothic and the Gospel”, I can only hope that it will be a short few years before the band is rightfully plastered all over major music magazines and radio.
Top Tracks: Farther North, Money Changes Everything
Rating: 9.2/10 (Hall of Fame)
Partisan – The Gothic and the Gospel / 2006 Reason Y Records / 16 Tracks / http://www.myspace.com/partisanrock / http://www.reasonyrecords.com/ Reviewed 24 March 2006
[JMcQ]