REVIEW: Deafheaven - At Work In The Fields Of The Bomb
DEAFHEAVEN, or more accurately, their fans, have been saddled with a certain reputation from extreme metal fans. If you’ve followed the band for any amount of time since the release of 2013’s Sunbather, you’ve no doubt heard talk of “black metal tourism” or “hipster metal” thrown around. Jonah Bayer’s Vice article from 2014 simply entitled “Why Are Black Metal Fans Such Elitist Assholes?” goes into various anecdotal examples of this, both in-person and online. Keep in mind, this was over a decade ago, since then, the band have reached their perceived peak, last year’s Lonely People With Power, but also what is generally perceived as their lowest point, 2021’s more-gaze-than-black Infinite Granite.
But strangely, it seems that this discussion surrounding whether or not they truly fit into the black metal label has slowed down. Surely, it helps that individual tracks like Magnolia and Black Brick have shown the purists that they truly are capable of producing no-frills, straightforward black metal on occasion. Realistically, one would believe they have nothing more to prove, that their space within extreme metal spaces has been cemented as one of the few modern black metal acts with any crossover appeal, whether for better or for worse, but much doubt is still thrown their way from the “trve” black metal appreciators out there.
Which makes their new EP, the almost entirely black metal At Work In The Fields of the Bomb worthy of the term “surprise-release” in more ways than one. In part, due to the 18-month gap between their last LP, the massively acclaimed Lonely People With Power and now. For the vast majority of that time they’ve been on tour - and between their own headline gigs and opening slots for MASTODON (alongside fellow blackgazers) ALCEST, it’s shocking to see they’ve even had the time to develop 23 minutes of original music.
As mentioned, this EP is almost entirely black metal, but convincing the naysayers that they’re capable of making an entire release based around the style isn’t quite as simple as just putting it out there - the quality of the music has to back it up. But by the time you’ve reached the second half of Sorry Laid The Hearth, any doubt is immediately cast aside. That’s a track so transcendent that it stands toe-to-toe with tracks like Winona, or even the now-modern classic Dream House - albeit in a completely different way. The blistering brightness of much of their discography is nowhere to be seen anywhere on this release, the catharsis provided by, say, the chorus of Heathen, is replaced by walls of sound so smothering, so claustrophobic, that any ray of light is snuffed out.
This is obvious even from the opening seconds of Hunter. George Clark’s vocals are a departure from the usual higher-pitched head voice screeches, more growly and urgent, almost imperative in the way he spits each phrase out. This is atop the symphonic EMPEROR-inspired riffs, complimented by a new tool for the band - a synthesiser, which adds to the cold and disaffected atmosphere. Of course, there’s still a decisive passion to these performances, but with a new edge. The seven minute runtime feels like nothing, even with the added three minutes from interlude Three Princes, which samples the THE CONET PROJECT’s (perhaps extremely familiar to some WILCO fans’) recording of NATO’s phonetic alphabet to create an unsettling dark ambient piece.
It leads nicely into the final track, Sorry Laid The Hearth - which is, as aforementioned, one of the band’s greatest works. The first half is similar to Hunter in its completely unpretentious, straight-forward black metal stylings. Opening on this disgusting sustained riff, there’s a slow build from the modular noise from the synthesiser, eventually played over oncoming blast beats, as the song just completely lets loose. But at some point, it stops. Pulling its punches for just a moment, we get the synthesiser oscillating manically over a tremolo-picked guitar, and fading out in place of a sole guitar strumming chords every so often. But then the distortion comes back in as it plays what will become the riff binding the final act of the song together. Over five minutes, the band builds up this sonic landscape that ultimately destroys itself, to the point where even the lead riff coming in every four bars to ground it feels unrecognisable. The (dare we say) MERZBOW-esque noise coming from the synthesiser, at odds with Clark’s voice, his screams of “Please release me, I cry, cry, cry, cry, cry” now so intense that they’re breaking up through the sheer busy-ness of the mix, but still not quite enough to fight against the chaos of the rest of the soundscape.
That’s how this twelve-minute behemoth, and by extension, At Work In The Fields Of The Bomb finishes. No full decrescendo, it just cuts out. Never any true resolution to the hellish display we’ve been blessed (or cursed?) with. With this, not only have DEAFHEAVEN produced one of the most essential black metal releases of the decade, they’ve cemented their status as greats. With Infinite Granite, they tried to prove that they’re not just one-trick ponies, with a lukewarm reception to the more pure shoegaze stylings. As it turns out, it took them leaning to the other side of the black-gaze spectrum to produce something truly remarkable outside of their usual approach. This EP is an essential, serving not only as a gateway into the greater black metal landscape for fans less familiar with the genre, but as a release that stands on its own two feet within the confines of DEAFHEAVEN’s stellar discography, and black metal as a whole - and hopefully marks the second release in a streak of all-timers from the band.
Score: 10/10
At Work In The Fields Of The Bomb was released on 9th October 2026 via Roadrunner Records.
Words: Noise Leonard
Photos: Liam Stewart
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