Album Review: Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Deafheaven

Lonely People With Power

**** out of *****

Deafheaven's modus operandi is to combine the pretty/raw via their mixing of death metal influenced power and wandering shoegaze beauty; how much you like any of their records probably says more about where you fall along that blackgaze spectrum than the band itself. The San Francisco, CA based outfit continue this alchemy on their newest album, Lonely People With Power, their first for the Roadrunner label, and to RtBE's ears, it is some of the best music they have produced as a band. 

   

The band has been at this for a long time now and the lineup of George Clarke – lead vocals, Kerry McCoy – guitar, Daniel Tracy – drums, Shiv Mehra – guitar, backing vocals, keyboards, Chris Johnson – bass, backing vocals, have pushed and pulled, playing with their sound the whole time. 

RtBE has been onboard since their breakthrough 2013's Sunbather. We really enjoyed the harsher New Bermuda, and thought that 2018's Ordinary Corrupt Human Love was their best yet, just missing out on our top ten that year. Unfortunately things changed in a negative fashion for 2021's Infinite Granite as the band ditched the death metal and couldn't really pull off a full shoegaze record to these ears. 

Now they are back combining those styles and things work wonderfully in their heavy/pretty fashion throughout Lonely People With Power. 

The record plays long as most of the songs are extended and do various balancing acts with the harsh/soft sounds as the band ebbs and flows. "Doberman" sets the tone, taking the listener on a journey through rock, metal and soaring vistas as the band returns to their patented style. While Clark's guttural/screeching vocals will always keep them removed from some listeners, they do work well as an added instrument to the band's sound.  

"Magnolia" is a highlight offering with car rattling double bass, head bopping grooves and soaring/pretty guitar runs, while "The Garden Route" digs into more of the shoegaze side of things with success. The band also flashes some Joy Division influences with "Heathen" while "Amethyst" is the band at its most cinematic and dramatic. 

Deafheaven go for their most artsy, experimental areas with the feedback laden, spoken word of "Incidental II" (featuring Jae Matthews) but don't give anyone a chance to call them soft before launching into the most death metal influenced track "Revelator" with ferocity, breaking for a cool acoustic guitar shift before more metal in the finale. 

The band's final two efforts are worth sticking around for and really cement this album as a through and through winner. "Winona" is a swirling storm that builds majestically shifting between bad ass metal and twinkling beauty leading to a huge crescendo followed by nature sounds while "The Marvelous Orange Tree" is a fuzzy, grandiose sweeping closer that buzzes and bangs in dynamic fashion. 

Who knows where Deafheaven goes next in their sonic travels, but a return to what they do stunningly well grounds them for the moment with the supremely successful Lonely People With Power.

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