The Irish quartet of Parhelia comes to add their name to the growing list of post rock bands from unexpected countries. It has been a long time since I listened to a band from Ireland and I admit that "Oceans Apart" was a very pleasant surprise. The band tries to mix post rock with progressive rock. Personally I don't see it happening in the five tracks of their second mCD, but their intentions are clearly read. What they want to do is to detach their sound from this flowing ambience of the post rock scene by being strictly guitar oriented. Without being something ground-breaking Parhelia manage to release a very sympathetic mCD, with very good tracks, like "Lights in the Distance" and "Storm Warning" (absolutely great track). The song-writing is very good and avoids the common formulas. Even in times you think that a song is leaded to a swarm of repetitiveness and boringness they shift direction, introduce new melodies and finally bring salvation. "Oceans Apart" is well produced by Neil Calderwood and packaged in a beautiful and moody digi-pack. The question for Parhelia is if they can test their powers with something more advanced and demanding. A full length album raises new challenges, which are increased by their musical style. Though they address to a very specific audience, with quite clear characteristics and orientation, they need to find out if they can handle such pressure, simply because the whole genre becomes overloaded and many good bands are out there claiming their share. But until then, every fan of post rock is suggested to purchase "Oceans Apart" and meet this very promising band.