I've been extolling the virtues of this album for longer than I intended, but the point remains – this is easily one of the best metal albums of the year, do not hesitate. I watched you lay on a towel in grass that exceeded the height of your legs. I watched the dogs twist through the wealthy garden. Never mind the sunshine dripping from the guitar and the oppressive heat of the drums, the lyrics are absolutely chill-inducing in their pain on the title track 'Sunbather', Clarke cries “I gripped the wheel. Aggregates like MetalSucks, Pitchfork (duh) and Heavy Blog is Heavy are tempted to agree, but on the other hand, as mentioned before, traditionalist black metal fans consider Deafheaven's work an attack on a genre centered around rage and nihilism.Īnd that's truly a shame to me, because Sunbather, its positivity aside, is a truly melancholic album.
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Roads to Judah was, for me, not a particularly engaging album, but Sunbather does that away, and I've had the riffs to 'Vertigo' and 'the Pecan Tree' stuck in my head for so long I learned how to play them on guitar to get them out. The effect of this album has been absolutely enormous – if it's not clear, I very much like this record. The album, which the band has stated deals with the extreme angst of impossible desire, masterfully works around those emotions throughout the album, and all of Sunbather is pure heat and emotion. Deafheaven have always been about atmosphere – their first LP Roads to Judah was all about exploring the various highways of the West Coast - and that ability to maintain a serene background amidst total chaos is explored and perfected in Sunbather. Sunbather takes the form of four lengthy (over 9-minute) tracks, with much quieter and shorter interludes in between each. It's an interesting, and, ultimately, a very good choice on the band's part.
Deafheaven, similarly to acts like Falls of Rauros and Wolves in the Throne Room, allow their music to wrap around the listener and transport them into the moment by forcing them to hear the entire 'wall of sound' and move with it. The decision to dial back the vocals is an interesting one, and I believe it truly works to the band's advantage – atmospheric bands like Skagos or, hell, even the mighty Drudkh always sacrifice a bit of their atmosphere by putting vocals near the front of the mix, since our first instinct is to focus on a human voice. The throat-shredding, distorted shriek of George Clarke lingers in the background, washing the listener away in blissful near-stillness – a bizarreĮlement amidst the frenzied black metal of the music and the harshness of Clarke's vocals. The first rapid chords of 'Dream House' immediately conjure up sun-blasted, stifling summer dusk. Sunbather is the band's second full-length after a split with Californian post-black act Bosse-de-Nage and their 2010 release Roads to Judah, and is a further evolution of the absolutely massive talent of the band.Įven the album art for Sunbather shows what you're getting into. Neige (Stéphane Paut, of Alcest and Amesoeurs fame) seems to get a pass, even though he's been at it for quite a while longer, but I digress. The California quartet that have masterfully and beautifully pioneered the “true hipster black metal” wave of the past seven years (following the path laid by the almighty Weakling) have faced intense scrutiny and criticism for their controversial mixture of black metal – blast beats, tremolos and shrieks – with shoegaze – head-in-the-clouds atmosphere and an obscuring pinkish haze. If you ask a true kvlt metalhead what is the most grievous transgression against modern black metal, they will point at Deafheaven. They had better start listening to more Slow Dive. That Sigur Ros have realized that if they want to make dreamy music, Ten-minute long yawn fests that were absolute torture to get through. Part of that is because the song lengths have been severely cut downĪ little over six minutes, while previous Sigur Ros outings had Of the first Sigur Ros songs that I actually found myself nodding 'Isjaki' is a prime example of this it's one
Shoegaze and dream pop among them – that make Kveikur all Juggernauts And So I Watch You From Afar, for example), it's theīand's relatively newfound mastery over a variety of influences – Intensely palatable, innocuous post-rock (nothing on Irish Strength lies precisely in that evolution – while it's still The atmosphere here is dark and haunting,Īnd the band has continued their trend of dialing back the theatrics and symphonic elements that they started in 2011 with the similarly excellent Valtari.