Hi, everyone. Latehony Datetano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Deafheaven album, Lonely People with Power.

Okay, here we have the latest record, the sixth album from California, black metal gamechangers, Deafheaven . They're back. First studio record in four years, following up Infinite Granite. And on this new record here, the band is really returning with a vengeance. An interesting album that lives at an interesting point in their career.

Now, if you're unfamiliar with the history of the band, you should know Deafheaven are 15 years deep together as a group at this point, and they originally cut their teeth in the midst of this black metal renaissance that we were seeing in the US in the late 2000s, early 2010s, with significant and influential groups like Wolves in the Throne Room having dropped records like Two Hunters in 2007, you could argue that Deafheaven arrived a little late and were already facing a ton of saturation and competition in this lane of music, as well as a lot of metal elitism that was pretty much poo-pooing any Western band dabbling in this sound at the time.

But yes, there were a lot of bands that were newly embracing tremolo picked guitars, blast beats, harsh vocals, more atmospheric production. But somehow, Deafheaven managed to cut through all of that noise with a record that put them at the top of this trend, Sunbather, in 2013. This record featured intense performances, bright production, and some subtle influence coming from the worlds of screamo and post-hardcore a bit, too.

So, yeah, there were a lot of reasons this record panned out to be as successful as it was and widely appealing among a very large amount of loud rock fans. But as good as this album was, sadly, it coincided with a peak in relevancy for this wave of music. The trend of bands dabbling in the sound of listeners being as interested in it slowly began to Coast downhill from there. But to Deafheaven's credit, they did actually start to experiment with other genres of music and combinations of ideas. They could have easily just dropped three more Sunbathers and probably still held quite a bit of interest in the general music scene as a result.

But instead, we got albums that saw them leaning more into other left field genres of rock that inspired them, be it shoegaze, indie, post-rock, a bit of dream pop here and there, too. Now, again, while these albums were commendable records, at least in my opinion, they are far from Deafheaven's best work. I think a lot of fans would agree.

However, now we are in seemingly a new era with Lonely People with Power, and it's an era that for Deafheaven sees them looking back, because now at this point, it's been over 10 years since the release of Sunbather, an album that now a lot of listeners rightly see as classic in its own right. So what better time to hit reset and embrace your metal roots once again, which is exactly what Deafheaven do on this record, to the point where there are multiple tracks on this thing that, to me, read as just straight up black metal, that's it. No screamo, no shoegaze pretense. "Revelator", "Doberman", "Magnolia". These songs have the blast beats, the riffs, the vocals. I mean, it's just black metal.

The band is not really experimenting that much with the sound. However, it still hits, and it's still a thrill because the band is executing these sounds. The band is executing this style with progressive song structures that are epic as hell, with a lot of ferocity on the performance side. Great guitar tones, chord progressions, melodies, really monumental songs that work into the tracklist so well.

However, when we look at the entire scope of the album, there's still quite a bit of variation, and things get especially epic when they dabble a bit more in their post-rock influence and use that classic loud/soft dynamic formula to drive some really grand and hard-hitting builds and crescendos. Case in point, the song "Winona", where there's also some chiller passages with clean lead vocals that read like something out of a late-era Mogwai song, maybe nothing out of the Sigur Rós catalog.

But it's not the first time the band has dabbled in such a combination of sounds. I mean, look back to 2018's Ordinary Corrupt Human Love. However, in this instance, even though I don't know if these styles marry the best, I feel like the band has gotten a lot better at bringing them together since then in such a way to where it's not tedious and the intensity of the louder, heavier spots isn't taken away from. I think the roughest instance of these sounds coming together is maybe on the track "Amethyst" where we do get some somewhat tedious spoken word passages.

But the rest of that particular track is fire, and there are much better examples than this on the rest of the album of similar styles coming together. For example, on "Heathen", like black metal and dreamy indie rock guitar layers have no right sounding this good together. And same with all the clean, blissful guitar layers throughout "The Garden Route".

I also think the band is getting a lot better this time around with injecting meaning into their songs, as I found the lyrics on these tracks to be more poetic and narrative than ever. I mean, the track "Body Behavior", for example, is an absolutely chilling song told from the perspective of someone who, as a younger version of themselves, I imagine, is being groomed, taken advantage of. Which, I mean, such a narrative cropping up on a record like this is not surprising given the cover of this album, which I don't think I need to explain, especially in lieu of the title of this album. This is not the only track on the record to, one degree or another, explors the dynamics of inequity in power, being used, being left for dead. A lot of these ideas are expressed with the fire and brimstone and righteousness and aggression that you would want from a black metal album.

So again, throughout a lot of this record, you have a lot of feelings and themes and sounds and ideas tying together very well that don't normally do so. And on some level, it feels like the band is really nailing this time around, something they've been attempting for at least a couple of albums now. Something new, something different, while also on multiple tracks staying true to their metal roots and even going further back in a way and proving that without throwing anything else in the mix. They can actually make some genuinely badass, sick, exciting, just straight up black metal.

So they can make music that's true to the genre. They can experiment with it more effectively than ever and make a really great assembly of songs with a strong flow throughout the tracklist, too.

Other nitpicks and criticisms that I have – I found the closing track to be a little weak. The incidental interlude moments on the album for me are a little hit or miss. I mean, the heavy, almost industrial transition that is provided by the guitars on the second one is pretty incredible. But still, on some level, I question how much they actually bring to the experience of the album.

With all that being said, though, I do genuinely think this is Deafheaven's best album since the release of Sunbather, which is honestly a relief to say because I have been just dying waiting for the band to drop a record that is somewhere in that league of greatness. And they have landed there, thankfully, once again with this LP, which is why I'm feeling about a strong 8 on it.

Anthony Fantano, Deafheaven, Forever.