Rave Magazine - Release of the Week

Wednesday, 10 November 2010 20:03

THE HOLY SEA – Ghosts Of The Horizon
(An Ocean Awaits/Fuse)

Melbourne mariners sail around the continent

Anointed by Nick Cave as worthy heirs, folk-rockers The Holy Sea duly raise the creative bar and give it their all on Ghosts Of The Horizon. Henry F. Skerritt’s raspy wail sometimes recalls Isaac Brock and the musical template primarily relies on the timehonoured two-guitars-and-a-piano combination, yet mere ‘pirate-rockers’ the Melbourne-through- Perth collective aren’t.

Cellist Gareth Skinner peels off one fiery passage after another, reaching critical temperature during Arthur’s Lament’s seething instrumental break. A furious, rambunctious sea shanty, There Be Dragons Here ups the lyrical ante on Gareth Liddiard by recounting a deadly clash between Captain Cook’s soldiers and native Australians. Dedicated to the doomed AFL codifier Tom Wills, The Ten Rules profoundly declares “there’s one rule for drinking and one rule to fight ... there’s one rule for the ocean and one rule for land...” while single King Of Palm Island revisits the Doomadgee murder and subsequent rioting sans the PC-ness of Bernard Fanning’s Black Tears. Another highlight is the grinding, Bad Seeds-y ballad The Seafarer; Cave’s presence resurfaces on the closing Holy Holy, the chorus of which hints at The Good Son’s title track before a gloriously ragged solo from guitarist Victor Utting cuts through. Mercilessly poetic and poetically merciless.

DENIS SEMCHENKO