I like to listen to music. Most people do. (Side note, I've stopped listening to music when I write; I find that once I click on related artists in Spotify, I don't get shit done.) I assume that other people have this experience as well, but every once in a while, an artist/song/album comes along that worms its way into my head and won't get out. And I mean that in the the sense that I frigging dig it and I have to listen to it over and over again until I'm sick of it. (2nd side note: when this happens, I'm pretty sure my wife gets sick of whatever it is before I do.)
So this happened to me on Friday. I am a big fan of metal - screaming, blast beats, the whole deal. I was perusing a variety of year end "Best Metal Albums of 2013" lists, because I find that is a good way to check out new bands. An album called Sunbather by Deafheaven kept popping at or close to the top of most of these lists. It was generally described as a black metal album with some shoegaze and post-rock influences. This is what the cover looks like:
Not exactly what you'd expect the cover of a "black metal" album to look like, right? Well, I had to check that shit out. And it BLEW my mind. The title track "Dream House" is amazing...blast beats, tremolo guitar lines, and shrieks are all there, but it just doesn't sound like most metal.
Basically, if somebody came up to me and was like, "Hey, pick three genres of music that you love, and then we'll mash 'em up, and it'll be awesome," I wouldn't believe them (that it would be awesome). And yet, here we have a metal album that owes just as much to post-rock and shoegaze, and it is awesome.
Here's the aforementioned track "Dream House":
Pretty sweet, right? There are four monster main tracks on this LP, with three shorter bridge type songs in between. Some reviewers have pointed out that this long track-short track-long track pattern is a bit "obvious," and it may be, but I think that it works remarkably well. It gives the listener some respite from the intensity of the main tracks and gives them album a nice flow.
The lyrics are obviously unintelligible and the screams are not at the forefront of the mix. For those of you apprehensive about music with screamed lyrics, I would say give this a chance. And I would say that it's best not to think of the screaming as you would traditional singing, but as an additional instrument or texture within the overall sound that the band is creating. Plus, I the post-rock style crescendos make the sound more palatable to non-metal fans.
I dig this album, and others seems to as well; oddly enough, it was the highest reviewed album (of any genre) on Metacritic. Whoda thunk a metal album would fill that slot? That's not to say that this album doesn't have it's detractors. I have certainnly seen the accusation that this is "hipster" metal bandied about. Additional, some folks have said that it isn't "real" black metal. Maybe that's true, but...I don't care??? Most of the reviews I have read say the same basic thing: call it post-black metal, call it metal-blaze, call it shoe-hipster-black-post-gaze--rock-metal, it doesn't matter. If you like it, great. If not, that's cool too.
So, check this out if you have any interest. Might not be for everybody, but I think it's a rewarding listen and one of my favorite new albums. (3rd side note: I'm going to be seeing Deafheaven when they play with Between The Buried And Me here in Omaha in March. I'm super pumped.)
No comments:
Post a Comment