Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power | Album Review

After reaching new heights with their previous album Infinite Granite and celebrating the tenth anniversary of their breakthrough Sunbather, California’s blackgaze pioneers Deafheaven look set to push even further with new album Lonely People With Power.

Deafheaven have been building a head of steam for a few years now. After relentless support of 2021’s unexpected shoegaze epic Infinite Granite, netting them scores of new fans and even bigger touring opportunities with the likes of opening for Knocked Loose. It wasn’t certain where the band might go next after softening their sound somewhat and committing to the ever present touches of shoegaze in their sound. However Lonely People With Power once again doubles down on treading their own path and Deafheaven might just be at their strongest yet. 

Lonely People With Power works almost as a three act experience, punctuated by the three ‘Incidental’ interludes; ‘Incidental I’ uses manipulated synths, vocals and atmospherics as if pulling you into a fugue or dream state, before wasting little time re-ontroducing the heavy possibilities of Deafheaven with the chest-pounding blackgaze intensity of opening track ‘Doberman’. The triplet chugs of the surprising bridge/breakdown portion makes a stunning opening centrepiece and lays the foundation for lead single ‘Magnolia’ to tear the doors off with oppressive metal riffs scorching the ground and George Clarke’s seething vocals salting the earth. ‘The Garden Route’ offers a slight reprieve from the prior bludgeoning, lurking in depressive post-metal atmospherics and a slower tempo and is followed by single ‘Heathen’ and the lengthy standout ‘Amethyst’, further exploring the melodic sensibilities and expansive compositions whilst regularly bringing back their punishing metal side. 

There is no divisive thought about it, this is the most cohesive and well thought out album Deafheaven have put out. It fits like the natural follow-up to Ordinary Corrupt Human Love and the style they teased with single ‘Black Brick’ before throwing the curveball of Infinite Granite. Whilst they popularised the blackgaze movement with Sunbather and it is still pointed to as their masterpiece, Lonely People In Power feels like the true perfection of the formula. The production pairing of recording engineer and producer of Infinite Granite Justin Meldal-Johnsen [St. Vincent, M83] and mixed by Zach Weeks (The Armed, Fuming Mouth) of GodCity Studio has the band sounding their cleanest yet. The range of textures and atmospheres, the dynamics of the compositions and small touches in the fringes of the mix all sound stellar and follow their already sterling quality in the band’s back catalogue.

‘Incidental II’ and ‘III’ feature guest appearances from Jae Matthews of Boyharsher and Paul Banks of Interpol respectively, both performing charged spoken word poetry over respective instrumentals reflecting the next passages of the album. ‘Incidental II’ lays a bed of surging noise and harsh sounds before the vicious surprise in the form of ‘Revelator’, an honest to god no bullshit burst of unfiltered black metal ferocity. The false climax halfway through the song almost tricks you into thinking its all over before the audio equivalent of a sucker punch with brass knuckles brings reality crashing back down as ‘Revolator’ continues its assault on the senses. This is followed by ‘Body Behaviour’ which might be the most ambitious track the band have put out, a dramatic flurry giving way to what can only be described as Deafheaven’s blackgaze take on a indie-shoegaze track, leaning into the Interpol energies prior to Banks making his appearance. It sounds a little odd on paper, but it works incredibly well as a shakeup towards the final act. 

Speaking of which; ‘Incidental III’ feels almost hopeful in a way, introducing the final act of emotional catharsis, Bank’s poetry reading lending to the feeling of trepidatious comfort. These last three tracks seamless blend with one another in a way other tracks haven’t, with swelling samples bleeding into the slow burn intro of ‘Winona’. The eventual break into soul shattering walls of sound and climactic crescendo’s and continued efforts to play with dynamics and textures lends the feeling of a lovelorn heartbreaker akin to Sunbather’s emotionally charged works. The sounds of rushing water transition into the somber post-rock leaning finale of ‘The Marvelous Orange Tree’, the vocals switching between pained howls and delicate heartwarming cleans, consistent in skirting the line of shoegaze as its woven into the band’s core. It makes for a powerful finale to the album, all of this emotional tension building over the course of an hour or so before finally being exercised with a feeling of cathartic finality.    

Every dispirit element the band have toyed with at one point of another; the shoegaze focus of Infinite Granite melded with the expansive post-metal melodic explorations of Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, the more straightforward trad metal riff focus of New Bermuda all tied together with the strong poignant emotional sensibilities of the blackened post-metal of their debut Roads To Judah and their widely hailed breakthrough of Sunbather. It has been woven together for a moving and painful successive journey through suffering, powerlessness, heartbreak and acceptance. It’s a consistent thought that Deafheaven can’t get any better then they already are after each release, and yet once again they prove their ability to further their expertise and create harrowing explorations of human emotion. Its powerful on first listen, but Lonely People In Power continues to grow on repeat listens, laying dormant in your thoughts between each time it is experienced. This is the quintessential Deafheaven album, it’s hard to say much else, just listen to this as soon as possible.