Review: Seahaven 'Halo of Hurt'
Written by Dexter Anthony
After rumors of a breakup and only two full-length albums in the last decade - this is their first in six years - Seahaven finally released their third LP, Halo of Hurt, via Pure NoiseRecords on November 20th, 2020. Frontman Kyle Soto has framed the new release as a return to the band's beginnings, building on a foundation of no particular expectations. This retrospective approach, tied with more interesting technical and stylistic choices, seems to work.
While the new album is different in tone from the band's earliest days, this "no pressure" perspective is reflected in an atmospheric sound that manages to be both insistent and laid back, often simultaneously. Paired with the record's improved instrumentals, there's a sense of hidden complexity that gives the listener a lot to like.
The record begins with "Void", a slow-burning intro track dominated mostly by slow piano and the ambient sound of crashing waves to match the lyrical content, which has been relatively solid for the band's eleven-year run and remains so here. It serves as a lead-in to "Moon", the album's first single, and both are emblematic in a positive way of what to expect from the record as a whole.
From here the songs continue to flow intuitively and cohesively, with "I Don't Belong Here" and "Lose" building on previous tracks with an added sense of instrumental depth and intensity. Soto's recurring use of religious imagery in the context of relationship complexities is a strength here, rising in places to a low-key and unforced lyrical poetry.
As a bookend to a run of songs both technically adept and tonally consistent, "Eraser" closes the album out with another musical slow-burn reminiscent of the first. Exploring death and its effects on an individual left behind, it stands as a fitting final track, with toned-down instrumentals matching an unassuming but quietly emotional lyrical repetition at the end that calls back thematically to the record's start.
At 40-plus minutes, with only nine songs, the album manages to feel exactly as long as it's supposed to be. Soto's voice, cadence, and pacing have always been among the band's greatest strengths. In various places, this album showcases him at his best. On point, the instrumentals push the listener to feel a sense of moody dissatisfaction that seems to speak as loudly as his words. While the band may not have exactly recreated an early-era release, the only things that keep it from having done so are improvements in nearly every sense.