Lonely People With Power

Blackgaze (shoegaze + black metal). San Francisco’s Deafheaven are back to their original sound from 2013’s celebrated Sunbather, after a melodic departure to shoegaze/dream pop on 2021’s Infinite Granite. The screaming and blinding-fast drumming return, alternating with atmospheric guitars. It has some great tracks and eloquent lyrics from George Clarke, but I don’t think it will leave a lasting impression compared to 2015’s incredible New Bermuda, my personal favorite record of theirs that I found life-changing texturally (check out Jessica’s great review and the tracks “Brought to the Water” and “Gifts for the Earth”).

Related: Alcest, Holy Fawn, Nothing, Deftones

Favorites: 2, 4, 5, 11
FCC: none

1. (0:57) Incidental I—Drifting ambient interlude with windswept vox
2. (6:34) * Doberman—Pummeling blackgaze, closer to the sound of Sunbather, propulsive drumming in last three minutes
3. (4:15) Magnolia—Aggressive alternative rock styling of blackgaze, extremely driving riffage and drumming in last two minutes
4. (5:48) * The Garden Route—Atmospheric pretty guitars, gets very driving a few minutes in and it’s amazing, eloquent lyrics: “drinking silver from a dim spring of mercury / on the outskirts of a desert / the lifeless slither / still we seek, thirsting and wandering”
5. (5:03) * Heathen—Dream pop that’s very Slowdive and alternates with driving blackgaze passages, anthemic, would scream along to this
6. (8:15) Amethyst—Generic blackgaze, not that memorable
7. (4:21) Incidental II (feat. Jae Matthews)—Spooky noise track with female vox, kind of Chelsea Wolfe
8. (6:24) Revelator—Generic blackgaze
9. (5:23) Body Behavior—Really bad blackgaze, don’t like this or the colors
10. (2:08) Incidental III (feat. Paul Banks)—Spoken interlude, intriguing lyrics of sorrow and love
11. (7:28) * Winona—Cosmic, with pretty guitars in last few minutes before the blast-beats return, sounds very similar to “Dream House”
12. (5:37) The Marvelous Orange Tree—Thunderous blackgaze, a lot of emotions, more eloquence “with my endless illness, walking into blackness”