Deafheaven – Sunbather

• Country: United States
• Style: Post-black metal / Shoegaze
• Label: Deathwish Inc
• Release date: 11 June 2013

The cover alone told you something was different before you pressed play. Sunbather, Deafheaven’s second album, takes the blast beats and shrieked vocals of black metal and points them at major-key melodies, shoegaze walls of guitar and long post-rock crescendos.

“Dream House” is the obvious entry point: nine minutes of tremolo guitar that sound like euphoria rather than menace, with the vocals screamed somewhere far back in the mix. The title track is even bigger, and “The Pecan Tree” closes the album with a slow build that pays off in the last minutes. Kerry McCoy’s guitar work is the real engine.

The quieter pieces divide people. “Please Remember”, with a spoken-word passage from Neige of Alcest, and “Irresistible” are breathing spaces rather than songs, and “Vertigo” takes a long time to get going. Some will hear this as pretentious. Recorded by Jack Shirley, it sounds warm and huge, and it was one of the few metal records of 2013 that people outside metal argued about.

Best tracks:

Dream House
Sunbather
The Pecan Tree

Author’s rating: 9.3/10