Deafheaven's new album is released on August 20th. The first track is available for listening on the band's Bandcamp page; Infinite Granite, by Deafheaven Sounds like the band has been listening to a lot of shoegaze (I'm hearing a big Alcest influence) based upon the first taster from the album, Great Mass Of Color.
Thanks for posting. Whilst I’m not generally a fan of screaming death metal type vocals, there is something fascinating about Deafheaven. Their mix of influences with their own twist on them is very appealing to me. Bought everything from Sunbather onwards and enjoy them all
I’m excited for the new album but I’m a bit skeptical about the direction. It sounds like they’re going on a straight shoegaze direction for this one and that kind of worries me. Bands like Alcest, Panopticon, and Opeth have all pulled this kind of thing before to mediocre results. If the song was really good I wouldn’t mind a change in direction, but there’s nothing here that gives me the impression that Deafheaven has an interesting take on plain shoegaze or indie rock. Hopefully it will all make sense in the context of the album.
I wasn't a huge fan of Ordinary Corrupt Human Love and while I respect them hugely for the two incredible pieces they put out in Sunbather and New Bermuda, I think the teaser track here is completely generic "shoegaze" (not even shogaze in any sense I know it, but just a reverby indie) that is more suited to soundtracking a montage of goals from a summer football tournament than actually listening to and enjoying.
Oh, Deafheaven have been musically shoegazey for a long time. And they have included a track or two with "normal" vocals before this. I discovered the band this year and have been listening to most of their catalog, so the new song really didn't surprise me. Since I've been on a Deafheaven binge anyway, I'm looking forward to the new album. Here's my recent blog post about them: San Francisco’s Deafheaven is a divisive band among fans of the black metal and post-hardcore genres alike. They blend a variety of styles that shouldn’t work together. George Clarke is perhaps the ultimate metal vocalist, using a pinched, throaty growl that literally sounds like Mike Oldfield‘s Piltdown Man on the Tubular Bells album. Clarke writes thoughtful, even poetic lyrics, yet I cannot make out one word he sings. It’s difficult to connect the words I’ve read with what I hear in his performances. He is usually pushed way down in the mix, adding a strangely subtle abrasive accent to the aural landscape, rather than lyrical context. In a concert clip I watched recently, Clarke lets out an explosive “EH!!!” at the start of a song and it’s one of the most perfect things I’ve ever heard. He clearly knows what he’s doing with his own unique style. Metal fans who come for the hardcore vocals are often confounded by Deafheaven’s music, which features flowing emo/shoegaze chord progressions and arpeggios, with occasional metallic guitar blasts. Many who like this heavy dreaminess wonder what’s going on with the vocals. But somehow I’ve fallen for all of it. I’m addicted to Deafheaven. I’m drawn to certain chord changes and riffs rather than virtuosity (although I certainly do appreciate it when I hear it). And Deafheaven fits the bill. With every harmonic progression, chiming strum and soaring solo, they hit the sweet spot for me. I find this both cathartic and soothing. It’s my meditative chill backdrop that distills what I love about music down to its essence. All I have to do is react as it flows on by. I should also mention how incredible the drumming is. In discovering these screamo groups, I’ve noticed the drummer has what must be the most punishing job of all. Daniel Tracy is no exception. His speed pounding rarely lets up, holding everything together and guiding the ebb and flow of the songs. Deafheaven’s 2013 Sunbather is regarded as a quintessential post-hardcore album. Most of the rest of their catalog is excellent too. The band planned on doing a tenth anniversary tour in 2020, but instead spent lockdown recording 10 Years Gone, made up of the set they intended to play on stage. I wondered if I needed this release, since I already had most of their other albums. But I ended up buying it on Bandcamp and it may be my favorite Deafheaven release. What could be better than all their best material collected in one place? The album would make a great introduction to the band. It’s Deafheavenly! I may never see Deafheaven live, but I’ve found the next best thing on YouTube. The video program Audiotree has two Deafheaven performances from their Far Out series, which presents artists playing live in unusual settings. These videos are beautifully shot and mixed, often sounding better than the originally released recordings. This is certainly the case with Deafheaven. Every breathtaking detail is clear and powerfully captured. Clarke’s vocals are brought up a little more than usual, which could be a good or bad thing, depending on your taste. He’s also far more subdued here than in concert, but this fits in with the stately surroundings of the auditorium. I love seeing the guitar interplay between Kerry McCoy and Shiv Mehra, not to mention the dynamic drumming of Daniel Tracy. Listen for the fun almost quote of the “I Feel Fine” riff in “Honeycomb.” I’ve included the videos below. I hope you enjoy discovering Deafheaven as much as I have. APRIL 7, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC3V6DU-o9k&list=WL&index=15
Wow they sound like a completely different band on this track, but not in a bad! Getting some major Alcest and Rolo Tomassi vibes mixed with maybe a pinch of recent Mogwai in there. George's vocals clean up real nice on this one! Wasn't a huge fan of his clean vocals in the past, but they sound lovely on this song. Interested in this new direction they're heading in
Compared to the Black Brick single from 2019 and the recent live album 10 Years Gone the new one caught me off guard, it's not bad just underwhelming and a little too familiar.
Completely new sound on that single, reminds me of The Smiths. The title sounds like something Coldplay would call a song...I wonder what the album will be like. I like it however.
I really want to like these new songs, but regardless of whatever genre they get lumped into, they just aren’t sounding like those songs you hear for the first time and think “WOW, who was that, it’s amazing”. That’s the feeling I was hoping for.
I really like this song. Sounds like Morrissey singing. The music is not all that different from before. The Cure meets Slayer to me. The soft then loud thing with long moody ness. So cool in person, live.
It makes me wonder what "metal" is these days...but that's a good thing! I ask myself what makes something metal and what doesn't? I'm working on it. It's fun.
"In these days"? Metal has opened itself up (or shall we say: "Tore itself open" ) at the dawn of the 90's. Since then it has become an extremely open system where anything from pure posing to extreme ambience goes. Just keep that skull on the sleeve! I love it!
Good deal. We're working on a studio project that we definitely call "metal," but then we've got hand claps, some disco, a sample of Malcolm X, 808s, strings, a choir, piano, a Moog, and various other sound effects, with no song over 4 minutes. The riffs are full-on gritty and mean, though. I mean, it feels like metal to me, so I guess that's all that counts. I like this band Deafheaven. I had never heard them before. Thanks, y'all!
I would, only I have this rule, that if I'm writing in a certain style, never listen to anything resembling the style I'm writing in, as I don't want to be influenced in any way. So, If I'm writing in a metal style I'll be listening to a lot of Prince, Duke Ellington, maybe some Tom Petty, a bunch of afro-centric music, has been my latest bag.
Infinite Granite drops on Friday. I’m finding the tracks released so far have started to grow on me, so I’m now pretty excited to hear the rest of the album in three days time.
So I've said some pretty negative things about the new singles both here and in other threads, but after hearing the new album I actually think it's pretty decent. Originally I found their new sound bland and the songwriting weak, but after getting used to the sound and hearing the songs in the full album context, I think they hold up better on both counts. That being said, I think the stylistic shift does sell Deafheaven short somewhat. I think the minimal distortion leaves a lot of the guitars sounding washed out and the lack of screams diminishes the excitement George Clarke's vocals. My favorite parts of the album were the endings of "Great Mass of Color" and "Villian", which is to say the parts that sound like classic Deafheaven. They don't really bring anything new to the shoegaze table either, which leaves me wondering whether I would even care about this album if I didn't know it was Deafheaven. It almost feels like this album is to shoegaze what bands like Ghost Bath are to Sunbather. Time will tell whether this albums sticks with me and/or grows on me at all, but as a first impression it exceeded my expectations but fell short of my hopes.
Love their early albums, and love this new album as well — it’s like a baseball pitcher that throws 100mph heat deciding to toss in some breaking balls. They’ve had softer and more melodic moments on prior releases, and I’m sure they wanted to see if they could spin that into an entire album. And now I’m excited to see what the next pitch will be, too.
Given this album one listen straight through, and I’m surprised that there’s almost zero traces of metal until the last song. Still, I really like what I’ve heard - much of it goes surprisingly well with warm summer days and evenings - and so far think they’ve met the full-on indie/shoegaze challenge better than Alcest did with Shelter. More spins coming forthwith.
Only adding my 2 cents after listening to their latest for a couple of weeks on and off. No one is happier than me that they went all shoegaze… The dynamics when you listen from start to finish levitates the last song when the these incredibly blast beats hits and his old school screams join… as perfect deliverance after this introspective journey full of great melodies and sounds. A really strong release for me.
