Line #30 Music/Deafheaven


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deafheaven201521.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:From left to right: Stephen Lee Clark, George Clarke, Shiv Mehra, Daniel Tracy, and Kerry [=McCoy=].]]
3
4	--> ''I am dying''
5	--> ''- Is it blissful?''
6	--> ''It's like a dream.''
7	--> ''- I want to dream''.
8	---> "Dream House" off of ''Music/{{Sunbather}}''.
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10
11	Deafheaven is a BlackMetal band from San Francisco, CA. Along with Music/{{Alcest}}, they are one of the pioneering bands of the post-black metal/blackgaze subgenre, which combines the tremolo picking, blast beats, and HarshVocals of black metal with the sunny atmosphere of shoegaze and post-rock song structures. They started off as a two piece consisting of vocalist George Clarke and guitarist Kerry [=McCoy=], under which they self-released a demo. After this got them some notoriety, they recruited new members to fill out their lineup and released their debut record ''Roads to Judah'' in 2011, which attained critical acclaim from the music press and put them on the map. They ''really'' took off in 2013, when they released their sophomore album ''Music/{{Sunbather}}'' to widespread critical acclaim, becoming the most praised album of ''any'' genre in 2013 on Metacritic, the first metal band to ever do so. Despite this, they became something divisive among the metal community, with many people decrying them as being "hipster metal". Undaunted, the band continued touring and released a third record, ''New Bermuda'', in 2015. This album featured a stronger metal sound, with an increased preponderance of heavy guitar riffs and less shoegaze influence. The band has continued to push their sound in new directions with 2018's ''Ordinary Corrupt Human Love''--their most sonically diverse release to date, with elements of classic rock, ambient, and spoken word alongside the heavier passages--and 2021's ''Infinite Granite'', which is essentially a straightforward shoegaze record with almost no harsh vocals.
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13	!!Members
14	* George Clarke - Vocals
15	* Kerry [=McCoy=] - Guitar
16	* Daniel Tracy - Drums, Percussion
17	* Chris Johnson - Bass
18	* Shiv Mehra - Guitar
19
20	!!Main discography (studio albums)
21	* 2011 - ''Roads to Judah''
22	* 2013 - ''Music/{{Sunbather}}''
23	* 2015 - ''New Bermuda''
24	* 2018 - ''Ordinary Corrupt Human Love''
25	* 2021 - ''Infinite Granite''
26
27	!!Demos, [=EPs=], and Singles
28	* 2010 - Demo
29	* 2012 - Split (with Bosse-de-Nage)
30	* 2015 - "From the Kettle Onto the Coil" (Single)
31	* 2019 - "Black Brick" (Single)
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33	!!Ordinary Corrupt Human Tropes:
34	* TheAlcoholic: George Clarke has struggled with alcoholism during his life. It's the inspiration for much of the lyrics on ''Sunbather''.
35	* BreatherEpisode: The even-numbered tracks on ''Sunbather'' are structured as this. "Bedrooms" serves the same purpose on the demo.
36	** "Night People", despite being an actual song as opposed to an interlude, can be seen as one for ''Ordinary Corrupt Human Love''. It's a quiet four-minute ballad with entirely clean vocals.
37	* ConceptAlbum: ''Sunbather'', [[MindScrew apparently]].
38	* CoverVersion: The band covered two songs by Music/{{Mogwai}} for their split with Bosse-de-Nage.
39	* CoversAlwaysLie: The album covers definitely do not reflect the genre.
40	* DarkerAndEdgier: ''New Bermuda'' is this compared to the rest of their discography, arguably.
41	* DrugsAreBad: "Windows" samples [=McCoy=] buying drugs in order to contrast the real-life hell of addiction with the metaphysical hell the preacher earlier in the track is ranting about. Evidently ''Roads to Judah'' was partially inspired by "a year of substance abuse" as well. "Come Back" off of ''New Bermuda'' also addresses this.
42	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The demo is mostly (apart from "Exit:Denied") fairly standard BlackMetal with few hints of PostRock or {{Shoegazing}} influence.
43	* EpicInstrumentalOpener: Several songs have one of these. The best example is possibly "Violet".
44	* EpicRocking: Excluding instrumental interludes, the band's average song length is nearly ten minutes long. As of 2019, even with those interludes included, you end up with a mean song length of about eight and a half minutes across their 29 released studio tracks. The longest is "Vertigo", at 14:32.
45	* FadingIntoTheNextSong: "Sunbather" -> "Please Remember".
46	* ForWantOfANail: The spoken-word passage in "Please Remember" discusses a man's unease at the idea that his romance is essentially a matter of chance.
47	* IndecipherableLyrics: As is the norm for black metal. At least Deafheaven, unlike a lot of other bands in the genre, print their lyrics.
48	* {{Instrumentals}}: "Bedrooms", "Irresistible", "Please Remember", "Windows" (although the latter two contain SpokenWordInMusic and/or {{Sampling}})
49	* LighterAndSofter: Than most other black metal.
50	** Their album ''Infinite Granite'' is this for their own discography, containing almost no harsh vocals or other metal elements.
51	* MetalScream: Type 3.
52	* MindScrew: The album ''Sunbather'' is described as a concept album that "deals with the profound sadness found in the quest for one's personal perfection... serving as an artistic lucid dream of warmth despite the stinging pain of life's cruel idealism". Even if you read the lyrics, you'll be stumped over what they really mean.
53	* NewSoundAlbum: ''Infinite Granite'' further expands on the minor {{Shoegazing}} and PostRock elements of several of their songs, has mostly clean singing, and abandons most of the metal elements of their previous work, resulting in a LighterAndSofter album.
54	* PrecisionFStrike: There's a vaguely audible one in the drug dealing section of "Windows". One of the speakers also says "dicked around" once as well.
55	* {{Sampling}}:
56	** "Please Remember" features a sample of Neige of Music/{{Alcest}} reading a passage from Creator/MilanKundera's novel ''Literature/TheUnbearableLightnessOfBeing''.
57	** "Windows" contains a sample of a street preacher ranting about hell and a sample of [=McCoy=], who was addicted to pharmaceutical opiates at the time ''Sunbather'' was recorded, buying drugs. Clarke commented, "Thematically, it's supposed to be about this guy talking about the evils of hell intermixed with one's own personal hell and the actual realities like addiction and self-worth, not the fire and brimstone. [[=McCoy=]] didn't have a lot of money, and he was kind of desperate; he's showcasing the true horrors that are here on earth--one's own personal demons."
58	* SiameseTwinSongs: "Dream House" -> "Irresistible".
59	* SpecialGuest: [[Music/{{Alcest}} Neige]] on "Please Remember" and Music/{{Chelsea Wolfe}} on "Night People".
60	* SubduedSection: Most of their metal songs have them.
61	* SurprisinglyGentleSong: "Bedrooms" and the interludes on ''Sunbather'' (particularly "Irresistible").

Context Music / Deafheaven