Seahaven

Ghost EP

Written by: PP on 04/08/2010 16:23:44

If you're looking for a review on unique music, you're in the right place. Seahaven's debut EP classifies as experimentalist post-punk, but it's not so easy to pigeonhole the band when they seamlessly combine so many influences together to create something truly special. There are nuances of Brand New, Crime In Stereo, Fear Before, Balance & Composure and even Jawbreaker scattered all across the EP, some easier to spot than others. Unfortunately such artistic ambition also leads into recordings so full of complexity that it makes my job as a reviewer a nightmare. Not because "Ghost EP" isn't good, in fact it's as close to being brilliant without actually being it, but because it's just so different from what's the norm in the music industry these days.

They emit a fresh, experimentalist attitude to composition, forging a wonderful dark/bright dynamic that's relied on heavily throughout the disc. The starting point is a slow, painful, Balance & Composure inspired quiet indie rock played with artistic ambition and sung with some of the most tortured rough cleans you'll hear in the industry. "There's a war inside my head, a brilliant display of death" is sung with genuine pain, but also with a glimpse of hope as a bright vocal dynamic lands on the end of the lyric, as if to tell the listener to bear with the emotional delivery for a little while longer. Elements of Brand New's "Daisy" and "Deja Entendu" combined are seen everywhere, as the artistic, internalized rage in the vein of Crime In Stereo drips from the edges of each line Chadwick drops on the listener.

So if the first couple of tracks on the EP represented dark rage, the middle section is much brighter, loaning impressions from pop punk scene while still keeping things in the Brand New territory, which means that a gloomy, darkened mood is surrounding the music even if it's for a moment stuffed underneath a few layers of instrumentation. "Cobarde" even has hints and nuances of Boys Night Out's "Trainwreck" because of it's subtle guitar strumming and volatile clean vocals that keep the listener on their toes throughout. It's as if they're on the verge of explosion throughout the song, without ever actually breaking into screaming at any point. In other words, very artsy fartsy stuff, without the vibe of pretentiousness that usually is associated with the sort.

But this EP's masterpiece is without a doubt the final song, the five minute "Head In The Sand (Blinding Son)", which starts out like Mae's most ambitious tracks (i.e. indie/alternative territory), but slowly progresses into a monstrously catchy chorus section, with monumental clean vocals that jump out of the song the first time you hear it. The song's so good, that had the band written an EP's worth of tracks like this one, we'd be very close to a near-perfect rating. That's not to say the rest of the tracks wouldn't be good, because they are, but this one's just a drop of brilliance in a sea of artistic ambition gone right.

Download: Head In The Sand (Blinding Son), Ghost, Birds
For the fans of: Balance & Composure, Brand New, Crime In Stereo, Boys Night Out
Listen: Myspace

Release date 25.05.2010
Creator-Destructor Records

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