As I plow through a copious and wide reaching variety of music, partially inspired by this Tumblr, partially just exploiting the modern resources available to me, I encounter certain inalienable truths about myself. I have little to no patience for Honda-commercial-seeking twee indie rock, my palette for hip hop doesn’t run as broadly as I’d like, and at the end of the day, I love loud, sincerely soulful music.
My friends know this. Tuesday afternoon on Facebook, I got a three word message from my old friend Shannon in New York: “Check out Deafheaven". I went to Spotify, where I saw I had apparently listened to and starred a song off their 2010 demo but hadn’t been inclined to follow up, and now they had a full length, Sunbather, up. So I started ‘er up.
Ho. Lee. Diver. Just a symphonic assault of sound. Front-man and co-founder George Clarke wails gremlin howls (not everybody’s cup of tea, but bare with me here) over a wall of guitar co-ordinated by other co-founder Kerry McCoy. The San Franciscans create a sound blended from dark metal, post-rock, and shoegaze to some pretty impressive results and putting them in some rarefied air. The first thing I thought of is that it reminded me of one of my favorite bands, Japan’s long-running and grossly under-appreciated ENVY (the fact that I haven’t seen Deafheaven compared to them demonstrates just how under-appreciated they are). Like ENVY, I can’t understand a word of the vocals, despite Deafheaven’s being in English, and like ENVY, it matters not, the context is certainly there. Deafheaven shifts dynamics artfully, capable of unloading a tractor-trailer’s worth of sound on you, then break it down to nothing but a duet between a clean and slide guitar. Their shoegaze influence plays a much more substantial role than you realize at first glance, with soaring reverbed power swooping within the fury of sound. In fact, despite being on my third trip through the record I feel there’s still much within their sound for me to unearth, I look forward to doing so.
While there’s been no lack of strong releases this year, I had been fretting about the lack of legitimate contenders for a year-end top 10 list, Deafheaven will be quelling those fears for a bit. - MO
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