IN REVIEW: LONELY PEOPLE WITH POWER - DEAFHEAVEN

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photos stolen from the internet.

Deafheaven, in all its sonic variations, is a band that has heavily emphasized emotion, both lyrically and compositionally. From their black metal roots to the dreamier, more post-rock influenced sound they have been foraying into since Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, Deafheaven looks to tap into the human spirit. Whether it's the beautiful, awe-inspiring rushes of tremolo-picked guitars evolving with oppressive walls of crushing distortion found in their earlier works, or the more carefully composed pieces of reflective, emotionally resonant post-rock with long, dreamy progressions and a genre-looseness that allows itself to dip back into those harder roots, Deafheaven knows how to make you feel something. And I’ve loved this band ever since hearing Sunbather. But, while I find myself listening to many tracks released post-Sunbather (Baby Blue, Mombasa, Honeycomb), not one of the albums released since has quite made me feel the way I felt listening to that tight, seven-track masterpiece for the first time. That was until Lonely People With Power.

Incidental I. An intriguing instrumental piece to start, the first in a series of three. The mood it sets for the album will become important, though, it feels like a more intimate sadness, a call for help even. A whining, robotic voice seems lost in sporadic keys and growing string-like synths. But before you know it, you’re dropped right into…

Doberman. I couldn’t think of a better opening track. It’s a great introduction to Deafheaven’s confidence in blending the sounds of both eras of the band. Whereas the post-rock-informed tracks of their later albums may borrow from their earlier sound, or keep the venomous screams of lead singer George Clarke in-tact, this album feels like a more organically synthesized melding of the genres. Through exploring prog and post-rock music over the last decade, their skills as composers and songwriters have evidently grown much stronger. This track is great, but is only the tip of the iceberg.

Magnolia gives us no time to think and drops us right back into the fray. The amount of composition that went into this single, four minute track is insane. It doesn’t necessarily go all over the place, though, each section feels like an intentional shift of energy--pushing it further and further until it releases it all into a dad-rock passage at 2:23 that is just impossible not to love. Well, I’m sure there are people who wouldn't fuck with it, but it hits just the right spot for me. This is a great song that is served well by its runtime, if it went on any longer it may have run the risk of feeling repetitive.

The Garden Route is the first track here to really show its dreamier cards from the start. Clarke wastes no time, though, and hops in pretty quickly to deliver us some beautiful poetry in the form of blood-curdling screams. While you’d probably have to look at the lyrics to know it (I did), the imagery is very striking. “Drinking silver from a dim spring of mercury / On the outskirts of a desert / The lifeless slither / Still we seek, thirsting and wandering.” Pure tragedy seeps through the last leg of this track. Another great one. Doberman and Magnolia give just enough for the listener to chew on to perfectly ease them into the more experimental and complex tracks.

Heathen takes a crack at the post-rock-blackgaze-blend from the starting point of an alt-rock, Radiohead-esque sound with quick, intelligent drums placed nicely into a wash of verbed-out guitars. That is before the track drops into an epic chorus with the, by now, very familiar blazing lead guitars and mind-melting screams. When the track kicks into its final section, it feels like a victory lap to an already complete sonic experience. Heathen, like many other tracks on this album, shows how far the band has come in terms of their songwriting.

Amethyst. Woozing drones behind bare, bleeding, acoustic guitar noodling leads us into yet another dreamy start, but one that completely transforms by the second half of the song. The chorus that enters and exits with a ferocity eventually stays and evolves into a completely new track. By minute six my jaw was genuinely agape. The amount of power and passion these musicians put into their performances, the emotion communicated so effectively in the writing and screaming, the character and ferocity the mixing and recording engineers put into those drums and guitars, it is all inspiring and impressive.

Incidental II (feat. Jae Matthews). With the three dreamiest tracks on this project preceding it, Incidental II marks a violent transition to the back half of the album. Like a humming swarm of bees on ketamine, buzzing synths of pure electricity haphazardly rise and fall to accompany the beautiful guest vocals of Jae Matthews. This is also where it may become more evident the themes and subject matter being discussed across this project. “You’re so good to me / Have we met before? / Baby, come to me” paint a slightly unsettling picture, only emphasized by a drop into perhaps the nastiest, most horrific bouts of sound I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Said bees come back with guitars and they’re PISSED. They’re in PAIN. The most spine-tingling, disturbing screams I have ever heard in my life push the aggression even further, with moments where Clarke’s screams seem to rise up from hell itself. This is when I knew shit was real.

Revelator. Perhaps the most explicitly black metal/thrash track on the whole project, Revelator makes a perfect reservoir for Incidental II to pour into. Found in the second half of this track is even a similarly ominous acoustic guitar passage which, as expected, abruptly bursts back into the chaos. Revelator continues the oppressively dark tone Incidental II introduced to us to, with perhaps its only vice being that previously mentioned predictable drop. That being said, this is still a great track and continues the album’s mastery over tonal progression.

Body Behavior. Sounding like it could be a track from Have A Nice Life’s Sea of Worry, (though perhaps more fully fleshed out and produced), Body Behavior goes all over the place--complete with distinct sections of post-punky basslines with tremolo-d out guitars, raucous rhythms and optimistic rock guitar melodies, and mysterious instrumental passages. Despite the more arrogant and bombastic tone found in the performance and arrangement of this track, the lyrics reveal a lost, questioning, and ultimately suffering narrator--something that will be further contextualized on the following, final Incidental track of the album.

Incidental III (feat. Paul Banks). A poetic prelude to the penultimate track of the album, Incidental III solidifies the narrative of Lonely People With Power. In a general sense, an exploration of the pain and abuse said lonely people with power can inflict upon others, specifically in this case it seems, an older woman to a younger boy. “And my face turned red, blushing / And she asked me the questions / Are you ever alone? / Are you younger or older?” and “It was the way that she touched me / Her arm on the window / And the way she said baby.” It’s a very matter-of-fact, honest portrayal of predatory behavior from the eyes of the victim. This, like the rest of the incidentals, provides the backbone to this album. You can feel the pain and sorrow from these experiences in every note; every swell; every syllable screamed.

Winona. Hands down my favorite track off the whole project. Winona is a crowning achievement in composition, production, performance--all marks. Beginning with wistful string swells and tremolo-picked guitars arranged like a symphony of sorts, before making way for the first full section. Familiar bursts of searing, fuzzed-out guitars create an oppressive wall of sound where a choir singing a simple melody finds its bed. From here, you’re introduced to a section with some of the most intriguing harmonic relationships on the album, between all the different guitars and bass that quickly re-orients itself around this beautiful, victorious crescendo. The track then retreats into a laid-back passage of dreamy guitars, so on and so on. If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve read enough of me describing the progression of songs--just listen to the album. And if you don’t plan on it, at least listen to Winona. This song is great!

The Marvelous Orange Tree. A great track if not a bit redundant. Winona served as a perfect finale, this feels almost like an afterthought. It can stand on its own merits, though. It has all the makings of a great Lonely People With Power track. The brutal blast beats; the dreamy guitars; the emotionally piercing progression; the fantastic production. It certainly is overshadowed by its predecessor, but is still a solid song.

Lonely People With Power is, itself, a powerful artistic statement of personal tragedy. A true successor to Sunbather and one which I believe not only holds a candle to it, but in many ways surpasses it. My issues with this project are few and far between and feel like nitpicks--this thing is amazing!

9/10

Stream Lonely People With Power.

-Nick

See Deafheaven live on tour with Gatecreeper. and Trauma Ray.