Deafheaven – Lonely People with Power (Review)

Sometimes it seems like there are unwritten laws or scripts in the world. Every aspect or area of life has its own. In music, there is often the following dramaturgy: the debut album establishes the sound of a band. The second album builds on that and acts like an update, sometimes better, sometimes worse. The third album is “the make-it-or-break-it album”. In Metal genres, this is often the album that features clean vocals for the first time or a ballad, it introduces stylistic elements that were previously unthinkable. The fourth album either refines the new sound, similar to the second album, or blends the origins with the new sound. From there, a band either maintains its sound and continues to write good songs, or it becomes boring.

However, with Deafheaven and their current album Lonely People with Power, which is their sixth album, things are a bit different. The predecessor was more aligned with the previously described dramaturgy of the third album. Of course, Ordinary corrupt Human Love had already introduced new elements to their known sound, but with Infinite Granite, the style-change was fully realized.

Infinite Granite was a daring risk for Deafheaven. They not only shed their known skin for this album, they seemingly switched their skeleton for this release too. But quality prevailed and it blended in perfectly in the great discography of Deafheaven.

Just looking at the tracklist evokes various memories of previous releases. A “Doberman” and its visions can be found in the closer of the last album, “Mombasa,” and there was also a “Rottweiler sermon” in “Villain.” Instead of “The Pecan Tree,” there is now a “The Marvelous Orange Tree.” In “Amethyst,” the shimmering synth layers create associations with “Other Language,” and “Revelator” could be the continuation of “Black Brick”. Flashbacks and associations abound. Most of them are Black Metal tinged. In almost all aspects, a sonic nod to the past is evident. A significant contributor to this is certainly the mix by Zack Weeks (Deathwish Inc.). The tone surely is more “down to earth” and gritty, less airy than Infinite Granite.

However, it would be wrong to accuse Deafheaven of merely repeating and quoting their own work. Lonely People with Power has enough original moments that make this album another great addition to Deafheaven’s extraordinary body of work. “Winona“, for example, is the most beautiful combination of the Asian Post-Rock masters envy and Deafheaven that has made it onto record. “Heathen” represents the perfect symbiosis of the old and new Deafheaven and a refrain for the next Best-of Live-Album

Lonely People with Power breathes the mentality of a fourth album, even though it is the sixth. It takes some aspects of Deafheaven’s past releases and puts them back into focus for those who have missed them. Lonely People with Power sounds less like an evolution and more like a manifestation of all the things that have made Deafheaven special in their more than 10-year history.