Band:	Deafheaven
Album:	Roads To Judah
Style:	Shoegaze, Atmospheric black metal, Post-metal
Release date:	April 26, 2011
A review by:	Troy Killjoy

01. Violet
02. Language Games
03. Unrequited
04. Tunnel Of Trees

Black metal is arguably enduring its third shift in stance - the first wave being essentially "evil" speed/thrash metal, the second being grimm and frostbitten kvlt metal, and this, the unofficial third wave, being "hiptellectual": Gorgoroth meets Jefferson Airplane or Pink Floyd or Radiohead or something...

Anyway, like it or not, it's happening. Northern skies are being blazed, tragedies are being blown...the black metal realm is expanding. And Deafheaven, a seemingly withdrawn American quintet, are here to take you by the hand.

Roads To Judah. It's a magical journey, a storied undertaking; musically it transforms reality and breathes new life into your vapid existence. It's energy, with the goal of awakening a sleeping giant, to uplift and sustain. It's aggressive, but is careful not to assert itself as spiteful. Is it pretentious? Not even half as much as this review.

What makes the story worth reading here is how playfully the words roll off the tongue, in that the lulling effect of the guitars and hazy, dream-like atmosphere slowly tug at your pant leg from the depths of murky waters before gripping your ankles and pulling you under at 2,000 meters a second. Every song is dancing at the edge of a climax. It's ugly. It's beautiful.

The instruments are mired in a thin-sounding production, with the drums choreographing the chaotic dance among the flowery meadow as piercing shrieks are heard in the background, only to drown in the pool of blastbeats.

The harmonies become lost -
lost in the desolation of love,
the passion they reap and sow.

It's Fenriz on Prozac, searching for happiness in the music, in the melodies, digging through the dirt of daily life only to find a bottomless pit. It's a black hole made up of the world's negativity. It's a beacon of hope. It's nothingness. It's essence.

It's a road to Judah.