Deafheaven return to form with a new record that is the culmination of everything they have worked to thus far.
Metal is the genre that I initially began my musical journey with. It was the music that my dad raised me on, and I thought it was just the coolest thing ever as a kid/young teenager. As I aged, I moved away from the genre mostly, classic records such as Metallica’s Master of Puppets or Tool’s Lateralus withstanding. I’ve come to find that the metal scene has been in a weak spot for some time now, with the mainstream in particular seeming uninspired to a disappointing degree. Sure, the underground would produce records such as Knocked Loose’s great record You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To last year or Behemoth’s The Satanist just over a decade ago, but for each of these great records you have dozens of bands like Falling in Reverse. Many classic bands such as Metallica or Mastodon haven’t released great albums in years now, and some promising bands from the 2010s such as Ghost have seen a decline in quality this decade. Records like Lonely People with Power give me hope for mainstream metal, breathing new life into the scene.
Deafheaven have long been labeled as “blackgaze”, a name acknowledging the blend of shoegaze (in the vein of bands such as My Bloody Valentine) and black metal. It’s a sound that the band has been playing around with for years now, with their second record, 2013’s Sunbather gaining significant acclaim upon release. In the years since, the band has continued to experiment, releasing two more blackgaze records (2015’s New Bermuda and 2018’s Ordinary Corrupt Human Love) before leaving black metal behind entirely on 2021’s Infinite Granite, a shoegaze record that I have never been able to get behind. These records (ignoring Infinite Granite) were well received, albeit failing to attract the same word of mouth that Sunbather did. No record of theirs has seen the acclaim that Sunbather brought in, not until Lonely People With Power that is.
Lonely People with Power is the result of everything that the band has worked on at this point. Deafheaven are fully back with their blackgaze sound here, with classic staples of black metal (screeched vocals, tremolo picked guitars, and blast beat drumming) all returning. Alongside these elements, the clean vocals and stronger shoegaze and ambient influence of Infinite Granite has returned in smaller doses, working greatly on this album. The band has successfully found the perfect balance between the harsh and the serene, the loud and the quiet. This contrast creates a hypnotizing atmosphere, one not quite like anything the band has done before. The record’s three interludes (“Incidental I-III”) create a good flow between the album’s different segments, adding to this atmosphere. These parts all work together to create an album that is both sonically intense and beautiful.
Lyrically, this is a very bleak, lonely record. It’s the most raw and direct that the band has ever been while still being dripped in cryptic phrasing and complex song structures. These songs deal with isolation, numbness, loss, and insecurities, among other lyrical focus. It’s a deeply personal record, one full of anger, sadness, and moments of beauty. Power is a recurring lyrical reference, being referenced in tracks “Heathen”, “Winona”, and a title drop in “Revelator”.
“Doberman” and lead single “Magnolia” open the record with an intense fury, dealing with matters of personal failure, feeling trapped, and grief. “The Garden Route”, “Heathen”, and “Amethyst” bring some shoegaze vibes into the record, with clean vocals being a prominent part of the latter two songs (both personal highlights of the record). Feelings of numbness and aloneness dominate these emotionally intense tracks. Following an intense second interlude, the album’s most aggressive moment occurs with the tracks “Revelator” and “Body Behavior”. The sense of self-isolation takes a turn from sadness to self-hatred and anger, a revelation brought during the former track. “Body Behavior” is the most personal song of the record, showing the impact that these “lonely people with power” can have on a person. The lyric “Don’t I owe them everything for all I’ve come to know” especially shows this negative influence and how it impacts self-image. Following the final interlude, the record presents its most dramatic moments with “Winona” and “The Marvelous Orange Tree”. The former is the culmination of all the developments made in previous songs, being an explosive cut lyrically and sonically. One of the most raw and dramatic moments on the record, it builds up to a sonic explosion in the beginning containing some of the bleakest lyrics on the album. The closing track sees a split between clean and harsh vocals, once again creating a contrast between the serene and the beautiful. The themes of the record are not solved on this track, instead the album ends in a deeper descent into darkness (“With my endless illness, walking into blackness” is the line that ends the record). It’s the most honest, human moment of the album. Life is full of moments that leave us empty, lonely, and feeling powerless. Many people go on quietly, never getting their solution, a chance for redemption or a happy ending. Life just goes on. It’s a raw end to a raw, emotional album.
Lonely People with Power is a revelation for metal, a record that I believe will only continue to grow on me. It’s a deeply personal, haunting album, equally intense sonically and lyrically. No record this year has been able to create this balance between two different sounds so seamlessly. For me, it’s not just the sound of the record that I believe will make the record a classic, but it’s brutally emotional lyrics. The record is a deep dark dive into our human psyche, exploring some of our lowest and most devastating emotions. Lonely People with Power will likely end up as my album of the year, a feat that is truly deserved. Deafheaven have created their best record yet, in my opinion blowing Sunbather out of the water. I believe that we are looking at the next classic metal album here, destined to be mentioned alongside the likes of Master of Puppets and Lateralus.