Deafheaven Bring Back the Roar on ‘Lonely People With Power': Album Review
At a time when heavy metal has mutated and evolved into so many different shapes that even the term 'post-metal' feels reductive, it's hard to slap the term on anyone — especially, er, post-metal pioneers Deafheaven, whose unusual fusion of screeched vocals and blast beats with towering, majestic guitars and gentle interludes have always made them hard to pin down. Now 15 years into their career, the band had made a hard left in their sound with 2021's 'Infinite Granite,' which found singer George Clarke dropping the goblin shriek and singing in a more conventional, dare we say alternative style. It was a worthy experiment, but actually removed one of the key elements that made them so different, and with 'Lonely People With Power,' he's back to shredding his larynx about 90% of the time.
'Return to form' is very much the vibe here, and any fans of the band's stellar trio of 2010s albums ('Sunbather,' 'New Bermuda' and 'Ordinary Corrupt Human Love') will find much to love. But that doesn't mean they're repeating themselves: It's a more refined sound, the towering textures of the guitars are more carefully crafted than ever, and the softer moments are more frequent and effective. There's also more variety, with Clarke slipping into spoken passages more often and guest vocals from Paul Banks of Interpol and Jae Banks from darkwave duo Boy Harsher. Former Beck bassist Justin Meldal Johnson (Wolf Alice, Paramore, M83) is back behind the boards, weaving the instruments into a tropical cyclone one minute and a tidal pool the next. There's one of their trademark closing opuses, this one titled 'The Marvelous Orange Tree,' that's so epic in scale it almost feels like the soundtrack to the final scene of a film.
Yet the most remarkable thing about this band's sound is the way the whirlpool guitars and bass meld with the hyper-fast beats and Clarke's vocals into a trebly, unified sound that would almost be like ambient music if it weren't so aggressive. Diving in is like an ice bath that shocks at first, but then is incongruously relaxing and peaceful.
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