Track Of The Day: Sea Hero - "Death Rattle"

On Sea Hero's newest album, Grave Talk, the last track begins with a high and fast plucked guitar juxtaposed with a slow, meandering bass line that is anything but impatient.  The opening of the song conjures up the image of a naked body from behind, twisting and squirming, the spine and bones no longer aligned.  Beauty remains, but in a new form.  While this is just my own visual interpretation of the instrumental track, I think it speaks to something universal about the music.  Like the twisting body, it bends, builds, reforms, and ultimately finds beauty in reforming what is already gorgeous.  

Clocking in at over twelve minutes, "Death Rattle" presents itself slowly, offering one small shift in the sound after another as the epic song takes its time to develop.  While the stunning quality of "Death Rattle" and many other Sea Hero tracks lies in the way they take the listener from A to B, the meat of Sea Hero's music exists in the journey between the two points.  Instrumental music is tough; the musicians must find emotion and make instruments feel human in order to replace the actual use of a human voice.  In this, Sea Hero hits on feelings that are absent from a great deal of songs featuring vocal accompaniment.  Throughout Grave Talk, Sea Hero acts as a guide, allowing the listener to make their own visceral connections to the music, but the band also dictates the mood, and in doing so, has complete control over their own artistic vision.  "Death Rattle" is relentless and sometimes brutal in its approach, but somehow, the clenching grasp around the listener's throat never comes across as threatening, but rather, dangerously inviting.