Deafheaven

that new single's intro sounds like they transposed the intro of godspeed you! black emperor's "sleep"

Still not connecting with this band. Not that they're doing anything wrong, but I get bored.

http://www.npr.org/2015/09/23/441531170/first-listen-deafheaven-new-bermuda

this is amazing so far, the drummer is sick as hell and every time they let a real riff rip it's skin-scraping

http://www.stereogum.com/1831360/premature-evaluation-deafheaven-new-bermuda/franchises/premature-evaluation/

generous and reflective

that solo on 'come back'!!

I'm glad that piece highlights the drumming, it's what I was most impressed by on first listen. Not just beautifully played but also great-sounding.

this fuckin record!!

i like this album a LOT more than the last one. i didn't really dig that album at all. but the guitars are cool on this and the singer sounds like he went to BM school cuz he just sounds better in general. and the pretty guitar parts remind me of The Sundays. which is a compliment. don't know if i would listen to this on my own - just checked it out to see what condition their condition was in - but it's a good effort. i actually like the ROCK guitar parts a lot. maybe the guitarist will start a regular rock band at some point. would listen to that.

One of the guitarists is in a regular rock band (The Creepers) but they're pretty meh live so.

The Sundays??? lol

sundays comparison is the first thing that's made me want to hear this record

yeah, why not? that languid and liquid thing. the sundays also derided way back when by troo kult cocteau twins fans for making 4AD sounds safe for the masses.

Listening to this now. Anyone who knows me should not be surprised that I'm not a Deafheaven fan. For all the obvious reasons. The article above (which I applaud for going out and asking people why they don't like this band) illustrates a prime reason why when it praises the drummer with "there aren’t many drummers in the world today playing at his current level". That's a comment only people who a) don't listen to a lot of metal drumming, or b) don't listen to much great drumming, period, could make. The drumming I'm hearing on this is fine, it's good. It's a bit too compressed in the recording for my tastes, and the actual content of what he's playing isn't anything that makes me take down his name for future research. In a nutshell, I might say the same thing about the band as a whole.

Still, I'm not hating this so far. It's clearly not the same kind of black metal I typically listen to, but I don't think that's the point. It's not just an indie thing, but not at the level of a Nirvana "break" either. It's not quite that big -- but still interesting to see how black metal can be played in a way that would basically make sense to a high school kid, who 15 years ago, would have been listening to Blink 182. That probably sounds like an insult, but I don't mean it to be. This sounds like a mainstream rock to me, and considering it's made out of black metal parts, is kind of amazing.

i'll be honest though, as far as new albums in this vein go, this is more my speed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTjE9IB0F4g

the new deafheaven just sounds more cohesive to me. and less like a lab experiment. the last album reminded me of the first interpol record or something. let's stitch together some screamo + post-rock + shoegaze + bm in a pomo way that will appeal to a wide audience. and it worked! and i've actually got no problem with that. but it worked for them and not for me. because there are soooooooo many amazing metal hybrid albums that are better. but this one sounds more credible. it's got tons of hooks and it sounds cool. nothing wrong with that.

i actually think this review is fine except for the first sentence.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21022-new-bermuda/

"Nothing about the band Deafheaven makes literal sense, starting with their place in the world.""

because really EVERYTHING about this band makes literal sense. including their place in the world. they are the post-rock culmination of YEARS of metal hybridization. if that makes sense...

also, i'm really glad i listened to the album before i read comparisons to built to spill and yo la tengo or i might never have listened to it....

I think there's skepticism about bands like Deafheaven because of sentences like that. I mean, it seems like this happens anytime a band brings in a "new" sound that gets popular -- all the old fans of that sound are like, "this isn't new to me! Quit acting like you're so special!" It's pretty funny actually, and easy to dismiss because really, who gives a shit what's old news to old fans? All new fans know is they like the music; all the better if it's edgier than what they listened to before.

It really only becomes annoying to me when someone in real life is trying to convince me to love their new favorite band, and can't understand that I don't find it quite so novel (which in reality, doesn't happen that often).

(and btw, I have done this myself countless times, especially with metal. OMG AUTOPSY IS AMAZING!! YOU GUYS, DARKTHRONE'S 11th ALBUM IS TOTALLY UNDERRATED, WHY ISN'T EVERONE TALKING ABOUT IT??? SUCH A BREATH OF FRESH AIR, THESE GUYS ARE AWESOME.)

yeah, i get that. "they transcend the genre" statements will always make a genre fan bristle. it can't be helped.

another new album in the same vein that i LOVE and could listen to all day. FOR FANS OF EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY AND GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR!

to me it's just a way better album. but it won't get any pitchfork love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e83ckO5LgY

sundays comparison is the first thing that's made me want to hear this record

Have to echo this. I am aggressively neutral on these guys -- heard the other album once on a stream, thought, "Eh, nice enough," then was befuddled at how it came A Thing.

Or became A Thing, rather, but anyway.

I'll leave the subject alone after this but there's something cynical and calculated about Deafheaven that I just can't get behind. I might be wrong but that's the vibe I get from them, every time.

(echoes of the moon album is just a dude recording at home in indiana...the mellencamp for a new generation...)

^this, but if ppl are rly persuasive i *might* listen to the new one xp

well, like i said, i didn't like the last album at all and i like the new one okay. worth listening to once anyway. whereas, echoes of the moon should be on your iBuds 24/7.

have stuck it on, thanks

I'll give those bands you posted a listen later, Scott. I like to think there's some life in blackgaze yet.

I can't really resist posting something that popped up recently. An odd mix of blackgaze + dream-pop + lo-fi weirdness. It's very rough and kind of amateurish but I don't mind that. The fact that I can enjoy this but dismiss the more slick/objectively "good" DH means there's something inherently wrong with my taste but eh, whatever.

http://namelesscoyote.bandcamp.com/album/blood-moon

i liked the last album but it didn't stick with me after a run of intense listening, i guess because of the cobbled-together feel that ppl mentioned above

i think the good-for-14-year-olds feel to the new one has to do with the songwriting basically, and the tonality of the songs and even just the production, the brightness of it all. i was thinking that ideally, you could just slot a lot of this in on the radio, like on our local npr corporate indie station here, and it *works* as radio music. like, not radio music 'except of course for the terrifying black metal shrieking', but including it—the way it's integrated into the sound just makes it make sense. obviously not in a way to actually overcome anyone's aversion to shriek-based forms of music. but it fits.

i realize the bass player is not doing anything remotely unusual but i like how disciplined they were in the arrangements, giving him so many driving sixteenth-note (or whatever) pulses that are also made really loud and precise, so the drummer can lay off the kicks but the whole band still thumps.

still get a thrill every time i hear the hum 'stars' ripoff riffs in the first track.

the pretty/quiet parts still seem like an afterthought to me—like they need to be there for structural reasons but there's nothing all that intrinsically interesting about them—but at least now they glisten more and they're not burdened by having to come off as 'sickly pretty' like on sunbather (which was the weakest part of that record)

still get a thrill every time i hear the hum 'stars' ripoff riffs in the first track.

the second thing that made me want to hear it

lol i do not like this. the sundays part in "come back" is pretty nice though

anguish!!!!

you're not that big on teh black metal sublime majesty droning modes usually tho are you?

i like how they tend to make those very concise and charging on here

yeah i'm not huge on black metal at this point in my life and i think deafheaven kinda make it more boring

the last track is hilarious and stupid i guess

is that the sixpence none the richer one

I think that's the Oasis one.

I don't understand how Deafheaven seems any more cynical or calculated than any other band, really. It's not like they made some stylistic shift toward a more lucrative sound. They've pretty much been doing what they do since the beginning, right? Just seems like two dudes making music together, and one of 'em is pretty good and writing really pretty guitar parts, and at the same time more people/influential websites are getting into heavy music, and now all of a sudden, Deafheaven is A Thing (tho they're probably still making little money).

I suspect if they weren't A Thing folks wouldn't think they seem cynical or calculated. Chicken, egg, etc.

I don't understand how people think any successful band isn't somewhat "calculated". They pick the right shows to play, they sell merch they think their fans will want, they tour and do press and release albums at strategically determined times, and hire people to help them do it. It's all calculated, and if they're lucky, it works.

I also get the feeling that people are calling the music itself "calculated". I mean, sure, it is to some extent. They wrote it, and wanted it sound a certain way -- but you can't magically create a hit song or album just by the chords you pick, or lyrics you write. If Deafheaven are writing music they think their fans want to hear, how is that different than any other act, successful or not? For the sake of argument, let's pretend they injected a bunch of black metal into their otherwise ordinary indie rock in order to become popular. Now, think about the logic of that...

/me defending this band

xpost

I am so fucking excited to hear that there is a Nameless Coyote full length. The EP was fantastic. I've searched the net every few months since it came out to see if there was anything new on the way yet I somehow had no idea this album was even in the works. I am going to listen to it tonight. Great news!

Oh yeah, and the new Deafheaven is beautiful. I love it.

I don't understand how people think any successful band isn't somewhat "calculated". They pick the right shows to play, they sell merch they think their fans will want, they tour and do press and release albums at strategically determined times, and hire people to help them do it. It's all calculated, and if they're lucky, it works.

I also get the feeling that people are calling the music itself "calculated". I mean, sure, it is to some extent. They wrote it, and wanted it sound a certain way -- but you can't magically create a hit song or album just by the chords you pick, or lyrics you write. If Deafheaven are writing music they think their fans want to hear, how is that different than any other act, successful or not? For the sake of argument, let's pretend they injected a bunch of black metal into their otherwise ordinary indie rock in order to become popular. Now, think about the logic of that...

/me defending this band

― Dominique, Friday, 2 October 2015 00:37 (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Credit me with some fucking intelligence, I know how this all works.

Let me put it this way: take Alcest and Lantlos, both of them are on the more well-known side as far as post-BM-gaze goes, and both on their latest albums have gone with a sound that is technically more commercially viable. In both cases it seems to me that they have changed, dropped the screaming and such because they felt that it wasn't relevant to what they are trying to express through their music at that point. Even beforehand, I always connected with them on an emotional level.

And look I know that music is MEANT to be manipulative and is calculated to some degree but DH come across as manipulative in a cold and creepy way. The chord progressions are formulaic and trite, the songs are awkwardly constructed, and it all seems like they're trying too hard to make you Feel Stuff. It's all a front to make up for their lack of real musical character. There are of course shitloads of bands who are guilty of this, but since, as alpine static pointed out, they are A Thing now means that they are a more obvious target for criticism. Everyone does it.

And again, as if it wasn't obvious, I'm not saying no-one else is allowed to enjoy them because I'm obviously missing something here and I may be utterly wrong on every conceivable level about this but that's how I feel about a mediocre blackgaze band that isn't worth the time typing this shit aaaargh I'll shut up now

I listened to the closing track, the 'Oasis tribute', and fuck me their melodic sensibilities are pathetic. I can't be dealing with this shit so I'm out as well

@ultros ultros ghali -- my point was really more along the lines of the only stuff you can calculate with any degree of certainty is the logistical stuff, like shows, album releases, etc. I don't share your opinion that this music is "meant" to be manipulative. Even if it were true, that would be hard/impossible to prove-- and besides, no matter what they "meant" to do, it has little or no bearing on how it's perceived. IMO it's not worth considering, unless you're *really* interested in this band, beyond just knowing who they are, what they sound like, etc. I'm not even close to that interested, and wouldn't say I enjoy their music.

(but I was also pissed after work, so probably came off angrier than I intended)

j. OTM, generally. Really good rock album, hits my Smashing Pumpkins buttons. I'm not even sure what ca 2015 mainstream rock music this might sound like tbh.

this is actually what brad paisley sounds like in 2015

lol

this is actually what smashing pumpkins sounds like in 2015.

htts://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuSLpa5bQvE

cut and paste at your own risk. i won't even litter a deafheaven thread with that crud.

lol the pumpkins song is 10000x better than this deafheaven shit. new bermuda = explosions in the sky + ride the lightning + that guy that sang in the coffin for sunn o)))

That combination sounds great.... what am I missing?

that guy that sang in the coffin for sunn o)))

malefic of xasthur

and yea that kinda is the combination, and its dope