Deafheaven

this band reminds me of the owl city guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7HmzwI67ec

its really not necessary to make fun of these guys for looking like normal guys since their dull, labored-over music should rly provide sufficient ammunition.

I am admittedly a very casual metal listener, but Sunbather has really grabbed me.

It's ok bro, this record is for people like you.

Can I just post this picture of Bosse-De-Nage?

http://i58.tinypic.com/1z1bvp1.jpg

ghost of bizarro Pete Seeger to thread

Blackened Flagpole Sitta

as 'this kind of thing' goes, I can't find any photos of Neige Morte that do their look justice, but when I saw them the singer was wearing boat shoes and no socks. I wouldn't have minded but I'd just been to see Immortal

TBH these Sunbather dudes just look like co-presidents of the Death In June fan club, USA division.

Do you guys look "metal" yourselves or do you just demand this of your metal musicians?

I look like Don Knotts in a black commando sweater and a porkpie hat with a Katatonia patch sewed to it.

To be clear, I voted for this album. I just think they look funny, in a funny kinda way.

One of the worst things in the 77 imo, turned off at the first egregious quiet-loud

if anyone wants to listen to an actual good usbm record from last year with some crossover potential try out woe's withdrawal. the main guy in woe also looks like just a guy, if that's a concern at all.

You'd have to be deaf to want to listen to this band! Hahahaha

I think I give up trying to get people to check out metal since metalheads do their damned best to put people off.

treeship if you ever want recommendations feel free to webmail me or if you're on fb gimme those details. Always happy to chat about any music.

If people check out Deafheaven and it leads them to get into Weakling or Ludicra or something, great. But compromise-metal just inherently gets on my nerves.

the singer in this band screams a lot.

Lantlos! That is the best post-rock-black-metal there is, mainly because the post-rock used is of the earlier, Talk Talk-ian kind. Love their album .neon.

I dug this album, Treeship, my man. I'm not sure yet, but it might even be in my top 10.

It's unfortunate the 'black metal' label has stuck. I guess nobody else can do shrieking vocals except black metallers. Yet it can't all be just about the music, right? Or can it? Isn't most metal now just riddled with contradictions and hundreds of little factions with their own thing that all of it essentially means nothing now? I didn't think people still argued over metal.

I remember metal fans tending to be worst than English modernists when it comes to labelling, with their fervent desire to categorise music.

I guess since I like Deafheaven, I'm just driven by the wrong ideology, lack that radical individualism, and am entrenched in a mainstream group identity/herd mentality. Metal just has too many sophisticated subgenres and subcultures, man. I.e., rules. I can't judge it because I'm just a casual listener. I'll leave that to true metal listeners.

But what do I know. I guess I can't tell what I like. Can a true black metaller recommend some basement-studio, genre-crossing metal that still keeps it real...yo? Oh, sorry, that's hip hop. I'm such a dilettante. Hihihi!

Anyway, the theatrics have always put me off. So has the Peter Pan syndrome a lot of these dudes have.

I remember in secondary some guys would get magazines with build-your-own-church-to-set-fire pages and my internal laugh would echo as strongly as blast beats.

Who says those who listen to Deafheaven even want to listen to an 'actual good USBM' album? LOL.

Kthksbye. Gonna work on this http://www.wikihow.com/Do-Black-Metal-Vocals

that's a shame you get put off. The whole reason I run metal poll at eoy time is to introduce everyone on ilx who can be bothered reading it to good metal of all kinds. Hardly anyone contributes on the rollout thread though. Lack of interest or fear of being shot down?

Maybe I'm wasting my time?

who says those who read ilx want to read a nine-paragraph crimsonhexagon post about anything, lol

@۩, Oh, I listen to some recommendations here. I appreciate that. And some I like. But that's as far as I'll go. I can't be bothered to shoot down bands like Deafheaven (or replace this band with whatever equivalent in another music 'genre').

All of us listen to music differently, right?

I've hung out with metalheads since I was a kid. I remember tabbing out Old Man's Child crap for some of them. I've played music with some. Even when I stopped playing music a couple of years ago, I was around some metal musicians. I'll just clarify the obvious, just in case: a lot of them are great people, but they are also much older and have diverse musical tastes.

Young kids have always been very set in their opinions. I am much older now and don't really discuss music the way I used to when I was a kid. I'm into more cultural and historical overviews. Identifying with a musical culture is not something I do or desire now. I'd rather study it on my own time.

I played music for a little more than half of my life. If there is one thing I was always put off by, it was the theatrics of performing. That's just my thing, though.

The people I would talk to when I was a kid were trading Dimmu Borgir tapes, as well as crust punk stuff. I always felt more welcomed by those who preferred the latter. It might've just been the time and place. But again, for me, music is not about being accepted into a group of people. I can listen to one album, then switch to something completely different. I have friends who listen to totally different styles of music. The consequence of this is that your life becomes compartmentalised. I can't have all of them in the same room, because I'm sure some would despise others.

The only metal friends I've tried to get involved in other realms of my life are those who like stuff like Opeth.

Anyway, thanks for your honest reply and, again, I appreciate your recommendations, ۩.

This got to #10 in the metal poll so plenty of metal dudes like it. Think the vocals are a bit weak but it's a good record that obv overlaps with the postrock/ shoegaze crowd. Plenty more music around like that: Alcest, Les Discrets, Drudkh, Lantlos, Nachtvorst, Arsaidh, Bosse de Nage, Westering, Kultura Kureniya, etc.

If people check out Deafheaven and it leads them to get into Weakling or Ludicra or something, great. But compromise-metal just inherently gets on my nerves.

― atom bomb, vietnam, missiles on the moon (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Saturday, February 1, 2014 4:27 PM (59 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Why? Deafheaven wanted to make an album that sounded like Sunbather not one that was more orthodox black metal, either in sound or spirit. How is this a compromise? If you don't like the way they integrate bm sounds into their music that's fine -- it's a critical judgment -- but your reaction to them just seems territorial.

it def it territorial, and i don't think that's great. but i also don't think it's great when ppl are actively avoiding the context that surrounds and creates something like deafheaven.

worst sin they committed (to metalheads) and also simultaneously most genius PR move is the album art

i think that's actually the only distinctive thing about them tho, afaict

the album art is awesome! and i kinda liked judah. the music on this one just didn't work for me.

ya its cool it just looks like something gr80 would listen to u know

balearic metal

If you don't like the way they integrate bm sounds into their music that's fine -- it's a critical judgment -- but your reaction to them just seems territorial.

I just find this "let's take one or two elements of metal and glom them onto some shitty, dull post rock/shoegaze" thing grating. It's not good metal and it's not good post rock; if the only creative innovation is blending two things together poorly, why bother?

It's very good post-rock!

I'm convinced and rescind all prior arguments.

Also I do actually like the cover.

I bet you can mention more worthy BM than PR from the last few years. Sunbather put some agression and energy into the mix, and it's the best post-rock in eons, with the possible exception of the last GYBE.

i'd like to try with this band again, but the scream-o vocal style is really off-putting for me. is there anything that tones-down the yelling, or is especially accessible and hook-y (maybe that's an alternative way to approach deafheaven, if it's all scream-o vocals).

yes, i know; i'm super-duper old, and should probably be listening to paul anka.

Don't worry, their next album will probably feature some daring experimentation with clean vocals. Album after that you'll never know they were a metal band at all.

oh I'd guess their one-sheets will make liberal use of the word "metal"

I usually love mimsy pseudo-metal usually but these guys take Envy and Wolves in the Throne Room and make it into something of a shitstain. Poor man's Alcest and that's being really fucking generous.

idk if theres a joke behind yr dn i'm not getting, but i enjoy it regardless

ban cad; ki-moon

Such dislike from some itt

I like Sunbather quite a bit. It's a good album.

is it a final fantasy pun? yeah that would be outside my area but thumbs up.

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

i mean, this song is stunning to me. i don't think it sounds like what i've heard of alcest and it definitely doesn't sound like wolves in the throne room.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Dyaoq_oSA

I really liked this album. I understand that its very success is galling because that seems to be about the buzz delivery system and its lottery like windfall for some bands at the expense of others. But the drumming on this album is ace, there are great riffs, and it is really well sequenced. Which doesn't mean other albums didn't also come out that have those qualities too.

It was in my list this year so maybe I'm defensive but I just kept going back to it. It's also not a thing where if you dig this you can't also get down with Insquisition and Cultes Des Ghoules and harder/darker/kvlter stuff.

OK I was rather needlessly aggressive, sorry (I just migrated from another forum because of that kind of shit and I'll try to cut it out). I think I dislike DH largely because of "the buzz delivery system and its lottery like windfall for some bands at the expense of others" mentioned above.

I just don't find them particularly convincing as either a post-rock or metal band... And in general I prefer black metal bands that look like college professors/scruffy dudes rather than grumpy pandas with a leather fetish.

periodic reminder that melodically these guys are the flaming lips

now got a black metal cover of 'this here giraffe' stuck in my head thanks aeroboot

periodic reminder that melodically these guys are the flaming lips

― joe perry has been dead for years (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, February 2, 2014 11:51 AM (54 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So?

the p4k review even admits that it would be an excellent debut album from a different band so it just comes across as disappointed they've changed

ppl who are disappointed in this record bc there are only a few black metal screams are all posers

all of them

otm

I’m listening to the catalogue to see if anything’s budged, and overall my feeling is that they get a little better on every album. The first two albums don't really work for me; there's a lot of drift and build-up, but the emotional exploration never feels that interesting to me. There's a tightness and shadowiness to New Bermuda that suggests something more complex. OCHL is playful, restless, and full of cool ideas. Infinite Granite is just a very well-executed turn, and conveys a lot of what I liked in previous albums in more concise form.

The bass player is secret MVP on this record. Rhythm section is key to making the songs move.

p4k will give it a 9.0 in ten years on the reissue

guess I'm a poseur? I think the album is good, and notably because the drumming, but yeah I liked the black metal bits. the best parts of this album to me are when they do reach back a little into that bag. I like this but still miss more of those bits. If that makes me a poseur, so be it I guess.

listen i think what i’m mostly saying is that the way they enfolded the metal parts of their sound into this continuum of subtle gradations is actually more metal to me than a black metal scream

i like the screams way more when they're used sparingly like on this album, they have much more impact. when they're the only vocal mode they're just kinda distracting texturally, especially in the blackgaze context where there's usually a significant contrast with the pretty guitars. i never found that to be really compelling & it also reduces the points of interest for me when there's not any other melodic content from the guitars.

but that's just "i'm not really huge on black metal"

I also am not big on the style of black metal that Deafheaven originally became known for. I much prefer the type of metal that is closer to goth rock, like In Solitude or Tribulation. To me it sounds like Deafheaven have moved more in that direction while keeping some of the shoegaze elements.

Deafheaven couldn't have gotten much worse, so I'm willing to believe they've gotten better

Kind of impressive that this band still makes people so angry even 8 years after Sunbather.

In many ways they're like The Strokes, only they finally turned into something worth listening to

i guess the strokes also put out their best record five albums in? but otherwise the comparison makes no sense

i'm listening to alcest for the first time in ages now to compare & he's way better at making the black metal screams work in the shoegaze context than deafheaven ever were before even if his drums are nowhere near as cool

on further listening any given three minutes of the new lantlos is better but the new deafheaven is better sequenced and the ending is sick as all heck

never got into their previous stuff but this is good

Seriously, just pipe Mombasa straight into my veins.

By and by, I wonder if Ride are the most obvious touchstone for this record. With better drumming (some of the pedal work is a joy).

This is my first time with this band, I dig it.

this is better than any ride album but there's not much of a trace of their blown-out jangle pop side of shoegaze here

Kind of getting a Tears for Fears vibe on "In Blur".

'better than any Ride album' is fighting talk

as much as going blank again rules, this certainly outdoes it

oh god OKAY i'll put it on today

Came here to say “wow, Deafheaven made a great Ride album!” Cos they did.

This is awesome. Liking it more and more.

they made an alcest album

I should check out Alcest then.

you should actually. They only really had one black metal EP (Le Secret) so anything after that shouldn't put you off really.

they made a goth Alcest album, to be more precise

this feels more distinct from alcest than their earlier work did

society if In Blur came back around for a third chorus at the end: [img-utopia]

Definitely a highlight of 2021. Hasn't faded a bit.

Is there a huge difference between the newly-released remastered version of Sunbather? I haven't had a chance to listen yet. I'll probably pick up the new CD when I see them later in Philly even if there's no real difference but I have trouble they'd put it out on formats other than vinyl if it was essentially the same thing.

New one is even more loud (i.e. compressed).

Doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement!

The ringing will be in your ears.