Deafheaven

Deafheaven are a black metal/post-rock/shoegaze whatever band who probably doesn’t need whatever teeny, tiny exposure this blog is going to give (about one and a half page views) but I’ve been listening to them again and I have nothing better to fill time with, so screw it. The internet certainly already knows about them since I found them through a friend who found them through a thread on /mu/. I don’t know what the reaction to them was on there at the time but if it was anything like Deafheaven’s tag page on Last.fm, with such tags including, but not limited to, “approximately 1000 times less pleasant than extreme anal caving” and “i would rather eat shit for the rest of my life than listen to this”, I’d guess they’ve fallen out of favor. That’s a fun comment box to read too and if I ever meet Kerry McCoy I know exactly how to kick off a conversation. Who gives a shit about 4chan though? I fucking love Deafheaven.

Their debut demo is ok, and I think Daedalus is the only stand out song on it because there is a tambourine smack in the middle of it, but it’s still a good album that introduces you to their style.  It’s a very clean and well recorded kind of black metal thing with post-rock influenced interludes with start and stop like you’re jamming on the break and gas pedal of a car. That’s one reason why I like Deafheaven so much: they’re well recorded. If more black metal didn’t sound like it was made in the back of a cave using a microphone older than it’s band members on a tape that’s been recorded over for the past three years…I might like black metal. However, it’s one of black metals “things” to have that low-fi sorta thing to it and, despite how much I don’t like it, I’m not going to sit here and think I can change it.

I have a hard time trying to find another song I like more than “Violet”, off their second album Roads to Judah. The intro to it just kills me every time I listen to it. While the rest of the album is good and shows more of that “clean black metal with something else” style, and it’s better than their demo, Roads to Judah still isn’t a 100% likable package. “Tunnel of Trees” is kind of a weak song despite being the longest on the album and the final song. It just doesn’t jive with me.

Sunbather, however, is easily their best album, and I don’t think it needs to be said more than it already has been. It was the highest rated album on Metacritic for 2013 after all. “Dream House” was the first song I heard from Deafheaven and it just struck me as exactly something I wanted to hear. With reckless abandon I bought all their albums and gave them a spin and Sunbather is easily the most comprehensive album for Deafheaven. They recruited a new drummer for recording the album and Daniel Tracy definitely shows his chops and stands out above the previous albums efforts. The three interludes that weave the album together in one, flowing listen are that right touch that makes me listen to it from front to back whenever I can. “Vertigo” also has a slick intro which I could listen to a few times over and absolutely tears ass eight minutes in. The closing song isn’t bad either! While I dislike final songs that fade out and sort of leave you hanging, “The Pecan Tree” nails everything about how an album should close out otherwise so I don’t even care.

I’ve gone on long enough. Deafheaven is good stuff for a lot of right reasons and I hope to hear more new material from them in the future. I also plan to drive nine hours across Kansas to catch them live later next month, God help me, but they’re also playing with Pallbearer and Wreck & Reference so that’s more than one reason to go on a cross-state exodus.