Deafheaven have always been a strange one for me. Even from my teenage years, when I wasn’t quite sold on their sound yet, the first time I ran through Sunbather there was something about the record that kept me thinking about it for some time. A few years later, I revisited the record with a fresh set of ears, a new perspective, and an open mind, and to my surprise I… absolutely loved it. The stark contrast of the glitzy shoegaze instrumentals and harsh black metal vocals struck such a resonant chord with me upon revisiting the record that, while it intrigued me on my intial listen, didn’t quite click before. At its core, it’s the combination of two styles; one so accessible, and one so deeply not that captivated me so much about the record, and the group’s sound in general.
It’s probably worth mentioning that I’m not a black metal person by any means, though. And perhaps that’s the crux of why it took a few years and a lot of mind-opening to truly appreciate the harsh dichotomy of Deafheaven’s sound. Even through those years of unsure feelings towards the group’s blackened side, there was always something that so heavily appealed to me with their instrumental work and production, though. I always wondered what a Deafheaven record where they fully (and without compromise) leaned into the shoegaze side of their sound would sound like, and while I never truly expected it, it was always something in the back of my mind. That brings us to now, with Deafheaven’s latest effort, Infinite Granite, and they’ve done just that.
By far, the starkest change with Infinite Granite is the distinct lack of vocalist George Clarke’s signature screams. Trading in the banshee-esque shrieks of the group’s previous work for an almost across-the-board shift to clean singing, I feel the more palatable nature of the vocals here have helped fully realise my headcanon for the group. Funnily enough, I find the vocal performance here to be more akin to classic 80s and 90s rock bands such as The Smiths and, appropriately, Slowdive than any of the black metal influences found on their previous work.
Of course, this is not all that surprising, given that this shift was telegraphed fairly hard on their last album, 2018’s Ordinary Corrupt Human Love. That said, despite the looming risk of potential fan alienation involved, I believe this shift has more than paid off, with the more subdued nature of Deafheaven’s music here leading to some of my favourite moments of the discography.
That’s not to say this album is entirely devoid of its heavy moments, though. In fact, I’ve found that the more seldom, spaced out approach to implementing the group’s blackgaze roots across Infinite Granite makes those moments all the more satisfying when they do crop up. Take closer “Mombasa”, for example. Across its eight-minute runtime, the song takes the listener on a sonic journey; slowly ramping up the energy from a subdued, acoustic introduction to its bombastic black metal outro, replete with those iconic shrieks and hyper-speed blast beats, its gradual build up to that inevitable release gives those closing moments a resounding, lasting impact.
The atmosphere across Infinite Granite is stellar, too. Ambient guitars, gorgeous textured synths and generally fantastic production work from Justin Meldal-Johnson help bring these songs to life with a wonderful sense of ambience. This is most apparent to me on lead single “Great Mass of Color” and its following instrumental track “Neptune Raining Diamonds”, with the latter featuring mesmerising synths and brilliantly deep pads that are sure to captivate you for those (relatively) short three minutes.
Overall, Infinite Granite is an absolute joy. At a lengthy 54 minutes spread across just nine tracks, this is an album that is as equally rich with content as it is spacious and reserved. Tracks like “Shellstar”, “In Blur”, “Villain” and “Mombasa” showcase some of the very best Deafheaven have ever penned, and while some may find the shift to an (almost) across-the-board removal of Clarke’s signature shrieks disappointing, beneath the surface here you’ll find what I believe to be Deafheaven’s strongest outing to date. Infinite Granite is available Friday, August 20th via Sargent House, and you can pre-order the record here.
9/10