Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power
Deafheaven are characterised as the hipsters of black metal, but Lonely People With Power is their heaviest album yet
Deafheaven have always been somewhat removed from the black metal scene that spawned them, not only musically but spiritually. In the true kvlt purist's mind, their textured, shoegaze-inspired sound signifies open-mindedness in a genre in which the opposite is often the point. Yet having tentatively pivoted to ethereal dreampop on 2021's Infinite Granite, the Californians have done another 180, to the point that many tracks here even resemble 90s Scandinavian pioneers like Darkthrone or Enslaved in their intensity. The ferocious early-album highlight Doberman sets the scene with its breakneck tremolo riffs and cavalcade of blastbeats.
Also back are George Clarke's tortured banshee vocals, which he uses to powerfully impart the record's central thesis: loneliness, narcisissim and self-preservation inform how influential people, in all aspects of life, exercise power. As he puts it on album highlight Magnolia, 'I owned everything thought to be suicidal mania'. So far, so metal. But the lush melodicism of previous records is still on display, notably on slow-burn tracks like Amethyst. Everything Deafheaven do – the powerful chord changes, the sweeping dynamic shifts – is geared towards enveloping the listener. Lonely People With Power is their most sonically-rounded record, probably their heaviest and quite possibly their best.
Listen to: Doberman, Magnolia, Revelator