REVIEW: Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Since their conception, Deafheaven have existed at least in the vague consciousness of metal. Their first release was taken as a sign of promise, before they blew the lid off of their perceived potential with the modern-day classic that is Sunbather. Having created an icon of extreme music already, as well as three further sensational releases - all probing into different areas of their broad stylistic range - it's surely at least heavily improbable that they could do the same thing again twice?

Improbable, yes.

But impossible, no.

Having pretty much created and curated the genre known as blackgaze, there are few adequate comparisons for a band who are so beautiful yet so crushingly heavy, so starkly painful and so gorgeously emotive. Even their immediate sonic peers in Alcest, Agriculture or Sadness can't quite compare to the vast array of sounds and feelings that Deafheaven can conjure. It seemed to all the world that, as far as we could tell, Sunbather would reign supreme at the head of the blackgaze table for aeons to come - but not all is as it seems.

Lonely People With Power is the heir to the throne, that blends the beautiful with the brutal to perfection yet again. After the extremely brief and slightly uncomfortable 'Incidental I', the all-but album opener 'Doberman' is a heavyweight aural boxer that throws you about the ring, tossing any preconceived notion of 'yes, but Sunbather' out of the window. George Clarke is in the form of his life, with roiling howls and anguished shrieks alike pouring out of whatever it is you may be listening on, whilst Daniel Tracy pummels his drums into submission and Kerry McCoy, Shiv Mehra and Chris Johnson all rollick in the pandemonium of their assorted strings.

Lead single 'Magnolia' introduced us to this new era of excellence, ushering in a new age of Deafheaven with the first serious signs of heaviness since 2019's 'Black Brick'. Anyone who gave it a listen may have cautiously gotten their hopes up for a great album, maybe an 8 or even a 9 out of 10. But they were all of them deceived, for a new iconic blackgaze album has been forged in the fires of San Francisco. Of the nine tracks that follow 'Magnolia', eight of them can stake a claim to being on an end of year best songs list - and that ninth is an interlude barely longer than two minutes, so is dubiously even a true song.

'The Garden Route' comes immediately afterwards, and is a shock to the system to say the least. It stands up there with the VERY best of the band's discography, and is not alone in that fact either. 'Heathen' and 'Amethyst' follow suit, albeit taking two different routes to get there. The former rides a groove that we've not really heard Deafheaven get into before, and swerves in and out of more relaxed cleans and middle-of-the-road heavy (by the standard of the band) in a wondrous concoction of immense enjoyment. The latter, however, builds up and up and up for the first half and then explodes into a freefall, spiralling out into musical oblivion as each band member steps to the fore and delivers a timestopping display, simultaneously.

Side C begins with 'Incidental II', a haunting departure from the expected path of this album. That long worn road needs some deviations on occasion, and the perfect time to detour has been found in an unsettling feature by Jae Matthews of Boy Harsher. This follows slickly into 'Revelator', the unofficial title track due to containing that within its lyrics. It's a more gothic side to the usual Deafheaven formula, and runs an ominously reverent sound that feels like descending into depravity masked as martyrdom. Starting out with a simple drum beat, 'Body Behaviour' feels like another real step away until Clarke's vocals reappear, but even then it's still markedly less oppressive and allows a little glimpse of sun into proceedings. Followed by 'Incidental III', the aforementioned dubious song features a reading from Paul Banks of Interpol before it segues into some of the most utterly glorious music put to record thus far in audio history.

'Winona' might be the best song released this year. It is an utter triumph of the Deafheaven concept, bringing their most emotionally devastating writing to the fore and intertwining it seamlessly with a crescendo of breathtaking, crushing weight in sonic form. You will routinely find yourself at a loss for words, or even thoughts, as the band run rampant across the audio files. They are in their element, dancing with the best of themselves in what feels like not only a successful finish to an album, but a triumph. That feels so perfect, and yet they're still not quite done yet. It's time for the final crescendo.

'The Marvellous Orange Tree' takes the baton for the final leg of the relay, and does so in more subtle fashion than most of the rest of the LP - at least until things kick off once more, for this final stretch. The cacophonous brilliance of 'Winona' left long behind, we're riding the last wave into the sunset and crying whilst we do so. The song evokes longing, wistfulness, and the titular feeling of loneliness, yet manages to make them all feel slightly closer to happiness than they should, in a gloriously bittersweet blend of heartwrenching quality that will only let up past the five minute mark, as the album lets you close the final page and shed a tear of finality.

It's not even the end of March. But it appears that this writer has found her album of the year already, and it's going to take some serious work to even approach the utter majesty with which Deafheaven have conducted themselves upon Lonely People With Power. This is yet another era-defining album from a band who can't stop winning. Six albums in, and they're still the best band at the genre they created and perfected, with not a contender in sight. If you listen to one album based on a review you read online, make it this one.

Score: 10/10

Lonely People With Power will be released on March 28th via Roadrunner Records.

Words: Jake Longhurst

Photos: Nedda Afsari