South of Deafheaven
The San Francisco
quintet became some sort of pariah with Sunbather (2013), an immense
album clad in pink and done by dudes with short hair who aren't your
typical metalheads, big deal, right? This record was praised by indie
rock magasines and divided the sometimes unfair
metal kingdom. I'll admit I had my reservations at first but
the quality of their music convinced me of their relevance, I think
they became trendy to hate for the trve black metal crowd who prefer
the old (and tired) tactics. With that said, Deafheaven has nothing
to prove to anyone, perhaps they didn't win over the crowd they
wanted to but with New Bermuda, they proved that they're not a metal
band by accident.
I thought the
direction they took with this new full length was a bit surprising, I
was expecting them to move forward into post rock territories by
praising Mogwai or Godspeed You! Black Emperor but the boys moved
towards an even more metallic direction than Sunbather. It's
like Kerry McCoy
had to prove that he grew while listening to Metallica (he's
always wearing these band shirts on stage to prove that he's one of
us!) when he was a kid.
Thing is, Deafheaven wrote a wide array of super metal riffs for this
new album (listen
to the
metal parts of “Luna”
or “Come Back”.)
They really put the “metal” into post black metal with these
almost Slayer-esque riffs. A complaint I've
heard
about their previous album is that while the post rock moments were
enjoyable, the metal ones weren't but I think it's somewhat the
opposite here (to a lesser degree). Some of the calmer moments feel a
bit forced or even cheap (like the piano conclusion of the opening
track “Brought to the Water). Still, the mix of pop influences with
metal is done tastefully, it's almost as if Savage Garden decided to
included Norwegian black metal influences in their music at times and
I think it's great!
The
musicianship
is impressive, the dual guitars are mixing intricate atmospheric
licks with heavy hitting riffs and the drumming is particularly
awesome and can
switch
perfectly between all
the styles required.
While
George Clarke (a strong dark
guru
presence on stage) fits the music, I think he's too buried underneath
everything on here and
a little variety would had been nice. His lyrics are pretentious,
that's a given but they're not bad at all. He's
not the most interesting vocalist ever but he doesn't overstay his
welcome and he lets the songs flow. The five tracks are all between
eight and ten minutes and they're all dense, there's
not a lot of filler if you actually appreciate their softer,
instrumental bits (the introduction of “Baby Blue” is quite
stunning and so is its proggy guitar soloing midway through). Sure,
some of the transitions between their styles aren't always top
notch but there's barely any bands evolving in such crossover styles
that are truly proficient at these, Deafheaven are certainly better
than most though.
Even
if it's different
than Sunbather, I doubt their detractors will find something they
like here and I bet they will not even give this album a chance.
Deafheaven aren't the best band of their generation and they didn't
reinvent black metal on their own (Altar of Plagues, Fen or Ash Borer
are all their contemporaries and are a bit better) but they're
nowhere bad or the “worst thing to ever happen to metal”.
