San Francisco, CA · blackgaze · post-metal

Deafheaven

2 upcoming festivals

Black metal's tremolo blur pointed at shoegaze bliss — screamed vocals over passages that keep resolving into something radiant, 'Sunbather' still the genre-argument that never ends.

Deafheaven formed in San Francisco around vocalist George Clarke and guitarist Kerry McCoy, and built their reputation on a hybrid few metal bands had attempted at that scale: black metal's blastbeats and high-register tremolo picking fused with the chord voicings and reverb washes of shoegaze and post-rock. Songs frequently run past the ten-minute mark, moving between shrieked vocals and long instrumental passages.

Their second album, Sunbather, released in 2013 with its pink cover, drew unusual attention outside metal circles and became a recurring point of argument about genre boundaries and audience. Later records have widened the palette further, including clean singing and more conventional song structures, while retaining the density and volume of the earlier work.

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