Deafheaven is my favourite band. There is no denying this fact. Roads To Judah was a masterpiece, and their previous demos and EPs were also A+ material. So, naturally, once Sunbather was announced I nearly crapped myself out of pure elation. Once the time came and I could finally listen to the album I was?
Not as quite good as the first one, but it's still an excellent album. Not as intense as Judah was.
The sound is a lot more expansive and is incredibly varied for this genre. No glaring holes of boredom to ruin the whole experience.
Whereas Judah manifested its greatness in a huge flash, and glistened with raw intense energy, this one is a lot more tempered.
Wouldn't call it a sophomore slump at all.
Fantastic and very accurate description.
This. Although I'm not sure that it is inferior to Judah yet, need a few more listens to decide. Looks like I'm forking out for a vinyl copy. Fantastic album
I'm a fan of Blackgaze genre but I can't see anything special about this album.It's just a good album nothing more and nothing less.
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 6
Originality: 6
Production: 7
Indeed ^ this is even being tabulated on Metacritic at an absurdly high score which leads me to believe mainstream music critics haven't heard much of this kind of music
I love this band, and I think this album is great, but nowhere near worthy of the massive praise critics and reviewers alike have been giving it. A relatively standard mix of blackgaze with some post-rock elements thrown around.
Indeed ^ this is even being tabulated on Metacritic at an absurdly high score which leads me to believe mainstream music critics haven't heard much of this kind of music
Agreed. This happens all the time with less-known genres, it seems. Some album builds hype and people who listen to one token [insert genre] album a year go nuts about it. Reminds me of Pallbearer last year, in fact. Still, I'd give this (and Pallbearer) 3,5/5. It's solid and simply fun, if not exactly exciting or mind-bending.
Not that I'm not guilty of the same phenomenon myself. That's probably exactly what my enjoyment of the odd hip hop album (CunninLynguists or smth) must look like to the initiated.
Agreed. This happens all the time with less-known genres, it seems. Some album builds hype and people who listen to one token [insert genre] album a year go nuts about it. Reminds me of Pallbearer last year, in fact. Still, I'd give this (and Pallbearer) 3,5/5. It's solid and simply fun, if not exactly exciting or mind-bending.
Pallbearer is a good example of that, of a band that seemed to inordinately break through into some mainstream circles and receive unanimous praise. I think Krallice did somewhat too (though they're undeniably quite unique sounding, if not very good).
A relatively standard mix of blackgaze with some post-rock elements thrown around.
I certainly fall in to the category of someone who hasn't listened to much music like this before... care to list some similar bands so I can change that? (I'll check out Pallbearer who were mentioned already).
I certainly fall in to the category of someone who hasn't listened to much music like this before... care to list some similar bands so I can change that? (I'll check out Pallbearer who were mentioned already).
Pallbearer are traditional / epic doom so nothing like this
I don't really like the sound that Deafheaven adhere to so I'm probably not the right person to ask for good recommendations.
I certainly fall in to the category of someone who hasn't listened to much music like this before... care to list some similar bands so I can change that?
Check out polish Entropia and their debut "Vesper" you won't be disappointed
InnerSelf name-dropped An Autumn For Crippled Children and Lantlos, they're both worth a look I guess. This album is pretty deep in screamo and post-rock territory, though. You might enjoy something like Envy or Circle Takes The Square from that direction. There's really a shit-ton of "blackgaze" around nowadays though, just search for the term in RateYourMusic charts or Last.fm.
I've listened to this a few times through now. The machine-gun drumming gets boring after a while and the screaming style vox does indeed remind me of scream-o. The album's saving grace is obviously the post-rock / atmospheric metal passages found in most of the songs. Maybe a couple more spins down the road can change my opinion but for now this album is waaaay over-hyped.
After listening for several more months I love this even more than Judah. The music is so much more diverse. It's not as heavy, but I find it to be far more intense because of the atmosphere that the music builds the the emotion that it gives off. Depending on my mood or the time of day, the way I react to this album changes dramatically and I love it. Looks like this will easily be my favorite album of the year and one of my favorite albums of all time. Something about this album just connects with me so much more than anything else in the genre has to offer.
Okay, I was listening to this record as not a fan of shoegaze or something. But, when this record ended I literally yawned in spaces. Sorry to say, for me it has nothing. I do however checked other similar records that'd came out in 13 and all sounds fresh and amazing but this is quite turned out to be like mhm boring? yeah, boring. Anyway, Deafheaven never appealed me just like Despised Icon or All That Remains. So, not pretty much interested what they do.
Written by Cynic Metalhead on 15.11.2013 at 13:40 Deafheaven never appealed me just like Despised Icon or All That Remains.
No idea what those two bands have to do with the topic at hand since they play a completely different style than Deafheaven.
Although I will agree with what you said - this album felt a little flat and uninspired, definitely boring at points, and fails in every way to live up to its predecessor.
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"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
Written by Cynic Metalhead on 15.11.2013 at 13:40 Deafheaven never appealed me just like Despised Icon or All That Remains.
No idea what those two bands have to do with the topic at hand since they play a completely different style than Deafheaven.
Although I will agree with what you said - this album felt a little flat and uninspired, definitely boring at points, and fails in every way to live up to its predecessor.
I said about ATR and DI 'cause both never appealed me. They were famous with bunch of popular labels and always performed in leading fests.
Just like from anyone, welcome back. What you were doing these days?
Written by Cynic Metalhead on 15.11.2013 at 13:40 Deafheaven never appealed me just like Despised Icon or All That Remains.
No idea what those two bands have to do with the topic at hand since they play a completely different style than Deafheaven.
Although I will agree with what you said - this album felt a little flat and uninspired, definitely boring at points, and fails in every way to live up to its predecessor.
Agree as well, I also found the production on this record to be not as good, especially the drums, but each to their own.