Deafheaven

i listened to this today and then the imperial triumphant album from this year -

https://soundcloud.com/earsplit/sets/imperial-triumphant-abyssal

- and since they both have a pretty dry and somehow contemporary sound i was struck by how un-science-fictiony the deafheaven record is. i think that might have been touched on in one of the reviews linked upthread, that it's adapted somehow for present-day gleaming-surface air-conditioned-nightmare precarious tech-bro life, but that must have something to do with the deliberate musical choices, the aiming for radio-friendly tones and structures and transitions. it's like it puts the record in the genre of 'realism', whereas your typical present-day black metal or death metal record, whatever resonances it can be found to have with reality or parts of it, code in terms of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, romance, etc. per our hallowed traditions.

even something as apocalyptic and otherworldly at times as black sabbath, it seems the blues element and the lingering 60s rock-combo dna make it all the more sinister, just so far as they make the music seem like it matches somehow with the actual contemporary world. even when ozzy's singing 'take your body to a copse' the archaism doesn't sound like an affectation, it seems like something mysterious and fearful still present in the world now (then).

and again i don't just mean the trappings, which are mostly ineffable in lots of metal anyway—the artwork, the fact that the song titles talk about evisceration rather than dragons or whatever, the different varieties of inhuman vocalization—i mean the ways the music itself codes as belonging 'elsewhere' or 'elsewhen' versus here and now (or some refracted glimpse of here and now)

someone brought in a copy of that Early Man record on Matador the other day and i had completely forgotten about them and the time when they were A THING and i kinda got the same vibe from them back then. not the matador thing. not the brooklyn thing. just a vibe like they weren't from the world i like to live in. i think they had emo roots. i just looked and they actually still record and put out a private-press CDR last year.

i think i actually do have a problem with pink album covers. i'm just not a big fan of the color pink. i have no problem with chillwave record titles though.

"When New Bermuda, then untitled, was announced last year, most of music was only just getting over the greatness of the band’s previous record."

http://www.vh1.com/news/211194/deafheaven-new-bermuda-interview/

I will take Brandon Stosuy’s numerous tweets about crying while watching or listening to Deafheaven over four thousand words about why someone else didn’t.

can we loosen the character limit on display-names pls

that Echoes of the Moon album is pretty good

OK I finally took the plunge after all the hype. I liked Roads To Judah (in fact, I seem to be the only one here who had it on the 2011 Metal poll ballot!) and wasn't too impressed by Sunbather, but I consider these dudes pretty legit. Now with New Bermuda, I can totally see that people will appreciate the various cool parts, because those are undeniably there. In particular I like how they're much improved in the actual metal department - the blast beats are excellent, the vocals are a *huge* improvement, and they have actual riffs now, and pretty good ones at that. What I mostly don't understand is the amount of people that rate this an (almost perfect) 9 or 10/10 given the amount of absolutely ridiculous trainwrecks scattered throughout it. The post-rock sections are almost a parody of the genre, and yeah that last track is knee-slappingly awful. This year I've listened to a shit ton of blackgaze/post-black and "atmospheric black metal" (as the band seems to prefer it these days?) but no way this is near the top of the heap.

(don't care about Deafheaven but would really appreciate a top of the heap "atmospheric black metal" tip)

This year? Kroda.

Post-rock was pretty much a parody to begin with tbh.

(and on the more post-black side, the Pyramids record is great)

i do actually 'read' the postrock bits as deliberate parody (ultimately because why else would you make them be the way they are)

(don't care about Deafheaven but would really appreciate a top of the heap "atmospheric black metal" tip)

― willem, Tuesday, October 6, 2015 7:52 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the vattnet viskar album from this year, "settler," is also really good

Myrkur's M is my favorite album in this vein this year.

i agree with siegbran. better than the last album in a lot of ways, but no big deal overall when there are like a dozen albums a week coming out that do the same thing better. and that will never be written about by anyone outside of a metal blog.

but...again...i get it. some things just get singled out. sometimes people just want ONE metallic album to listen to in a year. and these guys hit a lot of indie buttons for a lot of people.

and no matter what that 'one' album is metal dudes will get pissed off about it even if they used to like them

or they'll just go on and on about stuff that's better. which i have been known to do. but it usually just bugs me when the hyped thing is terrible. i don't think deafheaven are terrible.

i bet there was fanzines slagging off reign in blood or master of puppets.

Even Heartwork by Carcass was slagged of silly by some. It always happens whether the band is good or bad i think

Different people like different things for different reasons shock.

i don't think anyone is shocked by anything. for me it's more of a *why this and why not that* sorta thing. but when you add up all the elements of deafheaven it makes total sense. the last album that i really wanted non-metal people to hear was ashes against the grain by agalloch. i was playing it in the store not long ago and this 60-something classic rock guy was all over it. what IS this??? i wrote down the name for him. but it never really broke past the metal crowd, i don't think?

"i bet there was fanzines slagging off reign in blood or master of puppets."

Metal fans were pretty unified in their love for these records. Black Album was definitely the Metallica backlash record from metalheads and then of course by Load pretty much everyone was off the bandwagon.

i bet there was still "they sold out after Show No Mercy" type 'fans'

maybe some. I don't think, back then, I knew anybody who didn't freak out about Reign in Blood.

i'm willing to concede the drummer's not like unearthly or whatever, he's firing on all cylinders but many people do—but i think his parts are probably uncommonly composed to suit the overall compositions/arrangements, like he was an equal songwriting partner or something

these dudes are still false af but this record is pretty good, it was the "stars" riff that sold me thx j

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...

But they were never indie rock to begin with, they were a post-rock meets black metal band from the beginning then made an album that seemed calculated so as to please the indie kids/p4k crowd. Hence the backlash.

Still on the fence about listening to the new one, as I liked Roads to Judah but didn't care for Sunbather and the hype added to the all-over-the place comparisons I read about New Bermuda are turning me off for the most part.

but how did Sunbather seem "calculated so as to please the indie kids"?

to put it in very simple terms, it's post-rock meets black metal -- and you just said they were a post-rock meets black metal band from the beginning.

so they made an album that sounds like what they'd always been and that seemed calculated to please the indie kids? again, how so?

I don't necessarily hold the opinion that it was calculated (it doesn't really matter to me), I'm just expressing why some people feel that way. Sunbather did not sound like the band always sound, it was based upon the same foundation but it seemed to go in a more indie-friendly direction, something brighter (and some would say watered down) that would more easily crossover to the non-metal crowd etc.

'calculated' is a red herring here

they just sound really trite

they sound triter on this new one. Sunbather is the better album.

otm

Finally listening to this/them for the first time. Some parts sound like generic screamo, some like generic Radiohead, and it all fits together oddly. Not altogether bad, but so fucking weird to me that this is anyone's favorite record of 2015.

They do a bunch of things and none of them really well.

drummer sounds like he's trying to outplay his level

these dudes are still false af

haha a non-metal friend wrote me and was like 'i like this album but can you tell me, is it "hipster metal"?'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU8g0XNyHRw&feature=share

"Honeycomb" by Deafheaven from the album 'Ordinary Corrupt Human Love,' available July 13th

i listened to this today and then the imperial triumphant album from this year -

https://soundcloud.com/earsplit/sets/imperial-triumphant-abyssal

- and since they both have a pretty dry and somehow contemporary sound i was struck by how un-science-fictiony the deafheaven record is. i think that might have been touched on in one of the reviews linked upthread, that it's adapted somehow for present-day gleaming-surface air-conditioned-nightmare precarious tech-bro life, but that must have something to do with the deliberate musical choices, the aiming for radio-friendly tones and structures and transitions. it's like it puts the record in the genre of 'realism', whereas your typical present-day black metal or death metal record, whatever resonances it can be found to have with reality or parts of it, code in terms of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, romance, etc. per our hallowed traditions.

even something as apocalyptic and otherworldly at times as black sabbath, it seems the blues element and the lingering 60s rock-combo dna make it all the more sinister, just so far as they make the music seem like it matches somehow with the actual contemporary world. even when ozzy's singing 'take your body to a copse' the archaism doesn't sound like an affectation, it seems like something mysterious and fearful still present in the world now (then).

― j., Saturday, October 3, 2015 2:17 PM (two years ago

me otm

they're touring with Uniform and Drab Majesty - interesting lineup, might have to check it out.

the 12-minute "Canary Yellow" now up to stream

omg can't breathe

even more than usual it sounds like four different songs stitched together, but it's got strong stitching.

lol

Wow "Canary Yellow" is great. Loving both of these. Hell yeah.

Now streaming!

https://www.npr.org/2018/07/05/625292101/first-listen-deafheaven-ordinary-corrupt-human-love

these songs are long

on the bright side the first song is hilarious

this might be the first time i'm fully onboard with deafheaven! these songs are all ridiculous

They fully embraced their corny aspects on this one and it's a good look