DEAFHEAVEN - "Lonely People With Power" - Album Review
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"Lonely People With Power" is the sixth album from Californian blackgaze/post-metal band Deafheaven. After the predecessor "Infinite Granite", this is an interesting comeback to their roots (with a twist). After a 15 years long sound journey that saw them experiment with multiple genres of rock, be it shoegaze, dream-pop, or post-metal, while these albums were very good records, in my opinion they never truly culminated in what is the band's full potential. This album is a testament to that, and it crowns the highest moment of their career. "Infinite Granite" was a more polished and contained album, and it was a big risk for a group renowned for its uncontainable power and emotional theatrics. It felt different, refreshing, elegant, balanced, perhaps a touch too mature even. I always loved Deafheaven because of everything that album wasn't, but despite that, it was undeniably excellent and I found a lot to admire. it was never about the change of direction, or them embracing "softer" or "dreamier" moods. All in all, I saw a band with 2 defined periods and sound palettes, with the "unexpressed" potential of uniting them to create an even more endearing sound. I would picture it as multifaceted layers of raw emotions dying into dreamy spectral undertones. A landscape of intricate balance broken by the very essence of humanity, which is everything "Lonely People With Power" is. This is a record that can barely contain all the sounds the band holds, but it tries to in spectacular style, and unapologetically so. Many tracks here consolidate their hybrid approach through combining and blending, rather than subtracting the softer sounds of Infinite Granite, in clear contrast with the confrontational lyrics and guitar chords. Tracks such as "Doberman" and "Magnolia" go back to their black metal roots, without just being classic black metal. The band's approach is rich in progressive crescendos, structurally experimental, and thrilling and ferocious in the execution. When we look at the entire scope of the album, there is most definitely enough variation and experimentation, especially when they dip more in their shoegaze/post-rock sounds and use their contrasting dreamy/raging alternations. The story of Deafheaven has always been characterised by big contrasts and heated music discussions, starting from the story of how they released an album with a pink cover hosting pretty melodies while also being obscurely rooted in black metal. I am talking about their 2013 album Sunbather. Regardless of all the amusing accusations of it being “indie metal,” it had that secret ingredient that is impossible to define or pinpoint. Lonely People with Power, being another nuanced album, feels like an underground sci-fi film, with cinematic crescendos in place to make you experience every shift and turning point. While exhibiting this cinematic trait, it flows seamlessly and holds breaks, moments of silence, and interludes before any major change in sound. The "Incidental" tracks totally confirm this cinematic structure and narrative. A particular highlight is “Incidental II” (with Jae Matthews from Boy Harsher) in which a quiet, somber interlude evolves into a thick wall of industrial/screamo noise, expressing a sense of anxiety and loss. There is even more aggression to the thrashing accents of the riff driving “Revelator”. It might be one of the album’s most intense attacks, but it's still non-linear in the way it eventually embraces atmospheric accents - one of the albums's most endearing strengths. “The Garden Route” is a poetic love song expressed through clean and blissful guitar layers, probably the riskiest subject matter imaginable for a black-metal-adjacent band. “Heathen” tries to blend the obscure dreamy undertones of Infinite Granite with heavy and dramatic choruses. The song finds a satisfying balance before locking into shambling chaos in its final segment. The best Deafheaven songs have always resolved masses of overpowering emotion into beautiful, unexpected shapes. As an assertion of strengths that expands their dynamic range, “Heathen” feels miles ahead of anything they have ever produced. Lonely People With Power is a masterpiece that defines Deafheaven’s story. It leaves an impressive mark on their discography and on this genre. Declaring it the band’s best work is probably the most obvious thing you could say, but there is so much thematic resonance and points of musical delicacy to latch onto this complex "all in" package that will surely continue to grow and reveal itself as time passes. I am not one for scoring albums numerically, but if I was, this would be a 10/10. Tracklist: 1. "Incidental I"
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