By Ryan J. Nims
“Divisive.” That word has been thrown at the band Deafheaven virtually from their inception. While their debut, Roads to Judah (Deathwish, 2011) was positively received, it was their second album, Sunbather (Deathwish, 2013) that brought the band wider attention. Blending black metal, post-rock, and shoegaze, Sunbather became one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the decade. Fans of alternative music were introduced to black metal, while metalheads… Well, let’s just say many of the more gatekeeping black metal fanatics accused Deafheaven of not being authentic metal, but rather clean-cut “hipsters.” The band carried on, releasing two more great albums through the end of the decade, New Bermuda (Anti-, 2015) and Ordinary Corrupt Human Love (Anti-, 2018). 2020 saw Sargent House release Deafheaven’s 2010 demo, and a live album in celebration of the band’s 10th year of existence. The next year, they dropped their fifth album Infinite Granite (Sargent House, 2021), another divisive moment for the band. The band crafted a shoegaze-heavy album with mostly sung vocals and much less of the black metal influence that had defined the band’s sound. However, many songs showcased Deafheaven’s propensity for building crescendos and heavy climaxes from the more melodic tracks. I personally love the album, but I understand the confusion some fans may have felt upon hearing it for the first time. Despite the stylistic diversion, Infinite Granite was critically acclaimed.
In early 2024, Deafheaven (vocalist George Clarke, guitarists Kerry McCoy & Shiv Mehra, bassist Chris Johnson, & drummer Daniel Tracy) released a teaser confirming they had signed with legendary metal label Roadrunner Records, home to such bands as Slipknot and Gojira.
Their sixth album, Lonely People With Power (Roadrunner, 2025), was released on March 28th. Produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen, who also produced Infinite Granite, it may be the band’s heaviest album to date! Lyrically, the new album is very personal and autobiographical; the title references how influential people often lack meaningful interpersonal relationships.
Opening with the first of the album’s short synth-based interludes, “Incidental I,” the brief discordant segment immediately bleeds into the heavy six-and-a-half-minute “Doberman.” George Clarke’s vocals are as blackened and intense as ever before.
First single “Magnolia” follows, opening with big, thrashy guitars and some pounding drums by Daniel Tracy. Tracy is this band’s secret weapon; he is versatile, going from blast beats to complex, nuanced drum parts.
“The Garden Route” reminds me of something off of Infinite Granite in its melody, but without the clean vocals.
Opening with a hummed melody, the second single, “Heathen,” is next, featuring the album’s first clean vocals on the verses, but with typical screamed vocals throughout the rest of the song.
“Amethyst” opens with shimmering guitars and a light synth, reminiscent of the more melodic songs from Infinite Granite. There’s a soft spoken vocal, before the drums kick up, and the screaming begins! The song builds to an enormous crescendo with layers of effects-laden guitars and Tracy’s insane drumming.
“Incidental II” is a strange, almost industrial track that reminds me of something one might find on a Nine Inch Nails album. Guest vocalist Jae Matthews from the band Boy Harsher lends a gothic feel to the dark ambient track. Some of her lines mirror the melody from the beginning of “Heathen.” Clarke’s heavily distorted vocals in the track’s closing moments lend a truly frightening air to the song, before Jae Matthews closes the song on a calmer note.
“Revelator” is another big thrash metal-sounding track. There are some elements of the shoegaze wall of sound here, but by and large, this is heavy metal through and through. There is a brief acoustic guitar break before a guttural scream returns the song to a cacophony of noise.
“Body Behavior” is an up-tempo post-punk influenced track with soaring guitars and a propulsive rhythm section. The song deals with the awkward moment when an elder male introduces pornography to a young man, and the unrealistic view of love and lust that can come from that moment.
Featuring Interpol singer Paul Banks on spoken vocals, “Incidental III” is another short calm before the epic “Winona.” Featuring a chorus of vocals behind the band’s blissful instrumentation, this is definitely one of the standouts of Lonely People With Power. Deafheaven commissioned a short film to coincide with this particular track, starring George Clarke and Elisabeth Lambos. Elisabeth LambosElisabeth Lambos.
Closing track “The Marvelous Orange Tree” is one of the most overtly shoegaze tracks on the album, opening with a slide guitar passage, the instrumentation is gorgeous and expansive, contrasting nicely with George Clarke’s harsh vocals. There are some clean vocals on the verses, but mostly the track is built around Clarke’s emotive screams and some dreamy instruments.
With director Nedda Asfari, the band created short video clips, which tell a loosely connected story of various people living in a hotel: a man and his son, a hotel maid, a sketchy fellow with a duffel bag, a scantily clad woman, and a dark figure in a suit. The album’s cover images are stills taken from the filming of these pieces. The band has not released a video in full, but the official audio of each song on their YouTube channel has looping videos for each song, which, when pieced together, create a somewhat unsettling narrative, culminating in a discomforting reveal of the man in the suit.
While I’m sure that Deafheaven is still considered a divisive band by some, they are consistent in their experimentation and blending of genres, and in my opinion, one of the most exciting bands of recent memory.
Deafheaven will be performing at Emo’s in Austin on May 21st. Listeners of KOOP’s metal program, Search and Destroy (Thursday afternoons at 3:00), probably already know about Deafheaven, and either love them or hate them.