FINALLY. Deafheaven: "Sunbather" Review
Mike Review: When I first heard of Liturgy and Hunter Hunt-Hendrixâs âtranscendental black metalâ philosophy, I have to admit that they hooked me from the start. I knew that there was and could be a lot of emotion and intensity in black metal; Iâve listened to Wolves in the Throne Room multiple times over and felt plenty of feelings I would never have dreamed of being capable of feeling. With Liturgy, however, I was blown away, simply because I was able to feel such raw and untamed emotions (as such are the basis of humanity itself) on my first listen to Aesthetica.
           A few weeks later I listened to Deafheavenâs sophomore effort Sunbather, and seeing that it was sort of lumped in with Hunt-Hendrix and his philosophy, I first passed it off as nothing more than a cheap imitation: something that sounded much like Liturgy sonically, just more long winded. I see now that that was a base assumption, and after listening to the album more closely, I feel like they are a group trying to find their voice, and very nearly succeeding. Drawing equally from ambient, shoegaze, black metal, alternative, and new age, Sunbather is an album that is truly all its own. The vocals on the album are gorgeously masked by the instrumentation, making that the high point of this record. Whereas Liturgy is known for tight, focused instrumentation and the band playing together as one cohesive unit, Deafheaven focuses on each instrument (vocals included) and how each fits into the composition. Each song is sprawling, yet never divulges in self-indulgence, and never goes on longer than it means to. When it comes to the (often negative) hype surrounding this record, donât believe it: This band is so much better than any of its detractors could ever hope to be.
Jeff Review: The amount of buzz Deafheaven have stirred up in the past few years is atrocious. Between Deafheaven, Altar of Plagues, and the ever-infamous, yet Cutlery-certified Liturgy, âhipster black metalâ has become a full-fledged phenomenon. Liturgy toured with Death Grips, Deafheaven was invited to play the Pitchfork Music Festival. The point being that a cult sect of heavy metal has been getting attention from groups completely unexpected to enjoy this type of music, and the âtrueâ black metal fans, the worshippers of Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal, and the like are less than happy about it.
Enter Deafheaven, with 2013âs monolithic Sunbather. The band seems to be reaching influences that span from Mogwai to My Bloody Valentine, to even the Fuck Buttons at times. The general black metal aesthetic is kept in mind with tremolo-picked guitars saturated in distortion to the shrieking vocals of George Clark. However, the focus on Sunbather is not to be a âtrve cvltâ worshipper of Satan; the band writes extended compositions like Mogwai, building up to grandiose apexes and crashing down. Texturally, vocals and instruments swirl together, reminiscent of shoegaze acts like My Bloody Valentine. Picture Belinda Butcher screaming her lungs out as Kevin Shields gets lost in a series of dissonances and dreamy guitar textures. That is the ending of the first cut âDream Houseâ off Sunbather.
Disparagers of Deafheaven often label them as a knock-off of Liturgy, but that statement could not be further from the truth. Hunter Hunt-Hendrix and his bandmates focused on musical intimacy, technical prowess, and ensemble-tightness on 2011âs Aesthetica. This album is not one filled with jams, rather, full-fledged soundscapes with heavy attention to composition and focus on instruments as a means to create a space for a listener to drift in and out of the ethereal. The odd fuzz that leads into the out-of-nowhere acoustic guitar on âPlease Rememberâ serves as an excellent segue to âVertigo,â which finds Deafheaven spending ten and a half minutes of fervent instrumental tenacity. âWindowsâ finds Deafheaven exploring the portentous capacity of an indiscernible vocal sample played over piano overtones, reminiscent of the third movement of Stars of the Lidâs âRequiem for Dying Mothers.â âPecan Treeâ finds the band carrying their listeners off to a peaceful exit: inquisitive piano keys lurk under layers of clean guitar and Blink-182-esque bass slowly building to one final lavish cadence before the end of the record.
In short, Deafheaven is suffering from a case of negative hype. If a listener removes all notions of âhipster black metal,â even genre in general, Sunbather is a truly magnificence achievement. The genre wars may wage on, but there is no question that this band is pushing themselves as musicians and writers with this album as guitars swirl and screams echo to carry their listener off to a new realm.
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