Deafheaven

burzum sounds like Jesus and Mary chain but more accessible

Though I've heard it before
Still I need you more and more
But I just can't get away
Grishny kills me every day

the coun's on record saying that he's happy when it rains. one of his many chilling pronouncements.

To me the "not metal enough" criticisms of Deafheaven are misleading. The bay area has always been quite catholic about it's "heavy music" influences probably going back at least to Blue Cheer and Jefferson Airplane, if not the Count Five. Primus was an offshoot of the band that coined the term "death metal" (The Possessed) but was also influenced by the Residents.

Deafheaven are (to me, anyway) the product of a time in late 90's bay area college radio where Burzum, Noothgrush, Gasp, Fushitsusha, and Ebullition style emocore were being played in the same sets. I think they are much more clearly an offshoot of the northern california powerviolence scene (as are Weakling, etc) than any European black metal band. The following is the French emocore band Jasemine, from 1995. If you substitute the Dischargey rhythms for the plodding blast beats of black metal you get something very close to the kind of metal this thread is about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwvvSzScOyw

totally agreed and I dig most of that stuff as well, but imo, deafheaven's songs are way too drawn out for the style. I lose interest pretty quickly when these bands stray too far from quick grindy blasts. this stuff is made for 7" splits.

Oooh, good point about bay area college radio (I was a KALX radio Dj during the era in question and I can definitely speak to the way that KALX and KUSF shows were all about connecting the dots). KALX had a policy in which you had to vary your genre at least three times during a three hour set and you were not allowed to be "the metal girl" or "the noise guy" or "the hip hop lady" or what have you- diversity of genre was *mandatory* and shows as a result would encourage people to see what was similar about, say, doom metal and 90s indie slowcore (tempo) or power electronics/noise and black metal (texture) etc. So metal was always getting lumped in or cross-faded with hardcore or goth or industrial or folk or post-rock etc. It certainly influenced how I thought about music and I would guess that it would have impacted the history of bay area metal anyway (Lord Slough Feg, Hammers of Misfortune, Ludicra, or see Amber Asylum's intersection with Neurosis on a social level and otherwise ...) as well as the obvious overlap of the Aquarius records posse as a social scene with, say, the Lucifer's Hammer club, which was booking important early shows by Enslaved and Mayhem that were attended by lots of indie kids alongside lifer metal bros.

I am totally listening to Sane Asylum right now because of this thread

diversity of genre was *mandatory* and shows as a result would encourage people to see what was similar about, say, doom metal and 90s indie slowcore (tempo) or power electronics/noise and black metal (texture) etc.

how DARE you sir?? *turns on heel and leaves room for somewhere more kvlt*

listened to "sunbather" (the song) on repeat yesterday. when i first listened to this band i was put off by the vocals but now i think those vocals give the music a bit of nihilistic rancour. its a phenomenal track, an epic slice of Cure-gone-metal. count me in the deafheaven camp f'sure.

yeah it's obvious to me that the posturing of a lot of early black metal came from not having the resources/exposure to do more. of course you're gonna defend your horrible-sounding recordings if you don't have the capability record anything that sounds better.

― call all destroyer, Sunday, February 9, 2014 1:27 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it was definitely a deliberate choice for most of the 2nd wavers! some of them had the tech capabilities to do better but chose worse as a deliberate stance against what they saw as florid death metal & overproduction becoming the standard

Fun fact: Alcest's Souvenirs placed higher on the main 2007 ILX albums poll (#26) than Sunbather did on this year's (#31)

in "the pecan tree", the vocals almost seem to be struggling against the music, especially at the end, and they don't stand a chance. i keep thinking of an orc writhing in agony -- possibly dying -- as he is exposed to sunlight for the first time ever.

darkthrone had pretty legitimate production quality when they were a DM band, so it stands to reason they went lo-fi deliberately

an orc, gtfo

um the orcs have a vague psychological (not a physical) response to sunlight so go to hell

just meant that the tension between the black metal aspects of the record and the post rock aspects of the record really come to a head at the album's climax.

i quite like the idea of vocal ork dying by guitar light fuiiid

actually fuogp either way

Okay, it took me listening to it several times, but I really finally get this album. The hardest thing for me to get past was the screamo vibe, and it's still a detriment, but the fact that I also hear shimmering shoegaze, black metal undertones and psyche-era Pink Floyd mood changes makes up for that.

Chalk me up as another person who kept seeing this thread at the top of New Answers and went to listen out of curiosity, really dug it, then bought the album and now love it

Yes, I know just what you mean. In a similar way I am now enjoying burritos made with two small tortillas.

what if this is all just a dream and deafheaven is the reality? really makes you think

lol

It was all a dream
I used to read Terrorizer magazine
Fenriz, Count G up in the limousine

lol

A+

this is not to suggest that it's a likely influence but rather just a coincidence of production quirks, but one thing that kind of reminds me of trv old school black metal that i've heard is the fast Bob song on Husker Du's Metal Circus. that same insectoid, distorted whine of guitars and frantic cardboard box snare

What other black metal bands should I check out if I deeply love both this album and (though I wish it wasn't so) Filosofem? Like, black metal with atmospheric guitar fuzz and an ongoing dialectic between melancholy and transcendence?

Personally I'd recommend Explosions In The Sky

yeah good point they are better than most black metal

lol

I'd recommend actually exploding in the sky

black metal with atmospheric guitar fuzz and an ongoing dialectic between melancholy and transcendence?

― Treeship, Tuesday, February 18, 2014 3:01 PM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i guess people think they're boring now or whatever but Wolves in the Throne Room scratches this itch for me

i would recommend eits to anyone regardless of whether they like black metal or not

but especially if they like ongoing dialectics with their guitars

svperstvtvres of transylvania

Treeship: check out the new Woods of Desolation, "As the Stars" for sure.

Who amongst us will confess to having Sunbather as their best album of the year, then?

I never liked EITS, by the way.

Okay, it took me listening to it several times, but I really finally get this album. The hardest thing for me to get past was the screamo vibe, and it's still a detriment, but the fact that I also hear shimmering shoegaze, black metal undertones and psyche-era Pink Floyd mood changes makes up for that.

based on this description, i wish they'd reissue this album, without any vocals, so i can really hear it.

i primarily enjoy this album as an imaginary lost sunny day real estate record tbh

(xp) Deafheaven: The Karaoke Album

KIDZ BOP 666: DEAFHEAVEN

Sunbather is in my top 4 or 5 for sure xp

I had deafheaven #3 I think in the metal albums poll

Treeship I feel you would really benefit from Moonsorrow, specifically V: Hävitetty - absolutely incredible blackened melodic folk-metal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5-_4VbzF_A

ok, moonsorrow kicks ass. i already knew wolves in the throne room were good, but thanks hoos anyway for spurring me to re-listen to them. i'm especially fond of their first album. still don't know if i am getting the shoegaze element in these groups though that i love so much in deafheaven and burzum.

i think listening to metal over these past few weeks have snapped me out of a saddish period. if it weren't for deafheaven i think i would have just been stewing in my melancholy indie playlists, so thank you deafheaven. black metal seems to be about cathartically purging ugly feelings rather than aestheticizing them in a way that makes them seem not ugly, which is what sad love songs do for feelings of romantic disappointment. goes without saying that there is a place for both kinds of music. maybe this is just the old distinction between the beautiful and the sublime.

oh yea and this is relevant to black metal

http://www.freep.com/article/20140222/FEATURES01/302220057/Viking-calendar-predicts-the-world-will-end-today

Trying to listen to this on my portable crosby turntable. It isn't working out so well.

*crosley

ooof that must sound pretty harsh on a crosley

Crosleys are for old people in nursing homes to listen to Andy Williams albums on. Seriously, please save up for a better table.