Artwork by Nick Steinhardt
Style: blackgaze (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Lantlôs, Møl, Sadness, Harakiri for the Sky
Country: US-CA
Release date: 28 March 2025
Whether you’re a black-metal purist, a blackgaze-hipster, or simply a fan of innovation in music, you’ve probably run into the story of Deafheaven at some point—the story of how they released an album with a pink cover filled to the brim with pretty melodies while also being undoubtedly rooted in black metal. I am, of course, talking about their 2013 album Sunbather, a black metal opus flavored with indie rock and screamo inspiration that also spawned some of the most toxic arguments in every music forum of the time. Just have a look at the reviews for the album on Metallum and you’ll find no middle point between 0s and 100s. Some took this new idea with open arms and celebrated it to no end, while more purist fans of the genre flat out rejected it as not kvlt, an embarrassment to metal.
Where did I lie in this whole mess? Well, I got into metal in 2017, so I showed up to this war like Troy Barnes arriving with pizzas into a burning apartment. The comment warfare in random Loudwire videos addressing Sunbather certainly made me curious, and I approached it with an open mind. Not to my surprise, the purists were wrong, and I experienced one of the coolest releases of the decade whilst not paying attention in biology class. Deafheaven really knew how to deliver chaos with a hopeful tone. The lyrics were interesting, the structure of the album was impeccable, and every song left you feeling like you had just experienced an epic journey where you found hope in the darkest of times. Despite exploring territories both gritty and dreamy in subsequent works, Deafheaven never seemed to reach the level of critical acclaim born from that one pomegranate pink album. Not until this year, at least, as Deafheaven’s latest release, Lonely People with Power, has generated an equally fervent discourse in the music sphere. Bear with me as I try to explain why this LP has put our blackgaze buddies back on top of the music critic websites.
For starters, the sound of Lonely People with Power is… harsh. Even the heaviest tracks on previous LPs don’t compare to ‘’Doberman’’ or ‘’Magnolia’’; these songs have minimal blackgaze undertones and are simple black-metal bangers through and through. Everything is spot on here, be it the creative and energetic drum compositions from Daniel Tracy, providing a big sense of urgency and franticness, or Kerry Mckoy’s intricate guitar work that always manages to keep things interesting with a mixture of furious tremolo picking and agonizingly relentless melodies. Even when the lighter, dreamier moments of previous albums come, they usually function as huge climaxes after minutes of unrelenting tension.
The entirety of Lonely People with Power feels like a short film of sorts, and these climaxes have a near-cinematic feel of experiencing a turning point in the story that keeps you on your toes, awaiting the next twist that is about to arise. Further exhibiting this cinematic vibe, Lonely People flows seamlessly whilst also utilizing breaks, silences or interludes before any larger shifts in sound. The ‘’Incidental’’ tracks all but confirm a three-act structure with how well they set up introduction, confrontation, and resolution. A particular highlight is “Incidental II”, in which a quiet, somber interlude is interrupted by a barrage of industrial sounds, expressing a sense of distress within the album’s story. This major tension setter effectively prepares the listener for the strongest point of the album—the tracks ‘’Revelator’’ and ‘’Body Behaviour’’. The former has a riff that will stick in your brain upon first listen and nag you until you hit replay, along with a melody that expresses panic and distress, which follows along the lyrics of self-loathing and irreparable ego and builds upon the previous track’s distressing atmosphere. On the other hand, ‘’Body Behaviour’’ leans as close as ever to their sound from Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, particularly its chorus that fuses dream pop and black metal.
All the while, George Clarke delivers the best vocals of his career. Whether taking the lead or acting as a rhythmic addition to the chaos, each lyric is delivered with passion and anger, further raising the album’s already unbelievable intensity. Take, for example, the track “Amethyst”, where two minutes of spoken word build up allow for him to make a huge, dramatic entrance. Clarke sounds like an anguished man who’s desperate to stay alive, and the lyrics match, putting you in the shoes of a salvaged being who will not stop searching for a “glow”. Following its title, the album portrays people whose hunger for power consumes them to the point of being unable to form meaningful relationships or find a higher purpose in life. These people then try to find meaning and connect with others through morally dubious means—the exemplary “Body Behaviour” for instance explores two powerful men attempting to bond over the sexualization of women.
The only flaw I can pinpoint is that the album takes a bit to get going, with the first fifteen minutes or so missing the highlights of later tracks. But this slower start lends an even bigger punch to Lonely People’s middle and ending parts, making what follows all the more impactful. The whole album functions as one big blackgaze track in that sense, with the first half building unrelenting tension and the second finally releasing it all in incredible catharsis. And boy is it a payoff, for its second half is perfection. The penultimate track ‘’Winona’’ brings the listener an extreme amount of catharsis with what is arguably the album’s best climax. The track’s build-up thrives in its simplicity, scaling things back mid-song to a beautiful acoustic guitar melody before exploding with distortion and tremolo picking, unleashing a barrage of emotions while re-working that same melody. The climax itself is vintage Deafheaven—major-key melodies with black metal shrieks that make you feel like gravity no longer exists and you can finally float away into heaven. And if that wasn’t enough, closing track ‘’The Marvelous Orange Tree’’ delivers a slower, yet equally epic and heavenly atmosphere with dream-pop vocals and a blackened but mellowed out sound.
Twelve years ago, Deafheaven caused a rampage in the metal community with the controversial Sunbather. After the dust settled, a general consensus formed: Sunbather is a modern classic. And yet, Deafheaven refused to recycle their formula, opting to always offer something new with their releases. The fruits of innovation grew for over a decade and brought us yet another masterpiece in Lonely People With Power.
Recommended tracks: Revelator, Winona
You may also like: Skagos, Together to the Stars, Asunojokei, Constellatia, Violet Cold
Final verdict: 9/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Roadrunner Records – Facebook
Deafheaven is:
– George Clarke (vocals)
– Kerry McCoy (guitars)
– Chris Johnson (bass)
– Daniel Tracy (drums)
– Shiv Mehra (guitars, keyboards)
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