Deafheaven
Sunbather

"I'm dying." - "Is it blissful?" "It's like a dream." "I want to dream."

The sun shines over San Francisco. Look up at the sky and close your eyes. Relax and clear your mind, your half-closed eyelids will tint your vision with a more intense pink, in a play of contrasts with the bright rays. Stop your car along the edge of a road lined with houses, gardens, and affluent people. You are thus in the shoes of Kerry McCoy and, working with imagination, you build the lines for a thread that could ideally follow your future compositions. This is "Sunbather". These are Deafheaven. After the dazzling debut full-length “Roads To Judah”, the time has come to savor the new album of one of the most talked about and esteemed bands within the alternative scene. Expectations are high and, dispelling any doubts immediately, they have been amply rewarded. The duo McCoy (guitars) - Clarke (vocals, lyrics) has collaborated with Daniel Tracy on drums and renewed the collaboration with Jack Shirley on production.

The work orchestrated is monumental. A dream is created with extreme refinement and meticulousness in which to immerse oneself completely, to capture all the elaborated nuances. One is drawn into their world, into their musical vision and there is no escape, one remains fascinated and trapped in a grip that envelops and pierces at every single moment. In the journey in which one is transported, there is a continuous amalgamation of opposing feelings ranging from the most aggressive vehemence, black as pitch, to the most radiant hope, akin to the light of a new day. It can be said with ease that George Clarke is the dark side of Deafheaven; with a deafening, heartbreaking scream, he awakens us from the melodies crafted by McCoy. The latter instead fully immerses himself, in opposition to his sparring partner, into the harmonious and romantic side of the combo. It is thus an uninterrupted flow of chameleonic souls that are slowly and viscerally woven into a broader picture. Contrasts that attract each other: bliss and melancholy, fear and peace, serenity and drama, until the journey's end.
The strident and anguished vocal lines find support in the patterns of Daniel Tracy who behind the skins very skillfully and versatilely coordinates the different sound dimensions that are gradually created. Delicate in the deepest moments, overwhelming in the blast beat assaults. But the ace up Deafheaven's sleeve is the extreme mental flexibility in musical matters which is fully transmitted within “Sunbather” and of which McCoy is the main architect. Black metal is deconstructed and ends up being one of the many spheres of influence from which inspiration comes. Exquisitely post-rock sounds (not surprisingly they covered Mogwai) meet furious screamo, while acoustic arpeggios seek and find a perfect state of stasis with sections reminiscent of noise. A harmony that breaks with the inertia of apocalyptic escalations, before one can return to gently surrender to the touches of a piano or the reappearance of the ever-present shoegaze echoes. The violence is thus polished and only McCoy's liberating screams manage to make it explode.

The clock stops just below an hour and the “trip” created by the four pearls set among three interludes (among which one expects the appearance of E.Menuck or M.Gira), quotes from Kundera and much more, comes to an end. You open your eyes again and have the sensation of having listened to one of the highest peaks of 2013. “Roads To Judah” opened a path, “Sunbather” broadens it and shows Deafheaven capable of reaching an even higher artistic maturity. Pink is the new black.