Deafheaven

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.