Was thinking the other day that maybe I should have added Sunbather as my pick instead, so first off thanks for adding this album and righting my wrongs. It seems a logical combination - take the thrashing instrumentals of metal and combine it with the reverb-drenched guitars of Shoegaze. Somehow, this was the first LP to execute on that premise and deliver ‘blackgaze’ to a degree that I don’t think has been matched since, even by Deafheaven on their later releases. Every element of this album is tuned to fucking perfection. The production is air-tight, allowing the instrumentals to claim what seems like infinite space. And claim they do – the drumming is surgical but raw, the bass absolutely pounding, and the guitar lines expand until you’re enveloped in beautiful, pummeling melody. Clarke’s gnashing vocals will turn off the prudes on this project, but you can’t deny they seem to emanate right out of the sonic wall of midrange that erupts out of each track. It’s perfect order that sounds like absolute chaos, each of the main tracks a colossus that feels at once towering but fluid and agile. The LP’s composition only heightens its sense of scale, the contemplative interludes allowing a bit of breathing room before your head is forced back underneath the waves. What makes Sunbather truly revolutionary to me, however, is its unshakeable melodic grip. Metal is known for the minor-key, doom and gloom chugging that gets heads banging and mosh pits roiling, but the second ‘Dream House’ springs to life it’s clear this is no fugue. I’ve yet to find a track that matches the absolute triumph, power, and joy that’s invoked on the opener, which still feels like a breath of fresh air even a decade on. The rest of the album dips into darker territory (this is Deafheaven, after all), but even at its darkest the chords still ring out clearly and there’s a complete sense of musicality, not just distortion. Look past the gut reaction to the screaming, and you’ll find absolutely beautiful progressions and genuinely incredible artistic statements at the core of this album. I venture folks here will chafe at the interludes, but even the one with drill noise has some incredible piano going in the background. The more I listen to this album (which is frequently – ‘Dream House’ is a go-to driving/workout/fuck yeah kind of song), the more I’m certain this is one of the most important releases of the 2010s. Rarely does an album transcend its genre-trappings, but Sunbather does so in such extravagant fashion to sound at once orchestral and refined while being an insanely fucking raw metal LP at heart. This album absolutely deserves to be on the official 1001 and has already made it onto the Rolling Stone and NME Top 500 album lists, so again a massive thanks for getting it included here.
Sunbather
Deafheaven
2013
Album Summary
Sunbather is the second studio album by the American metal band Deafheaven. After the release of their debut record Roads to Judah, the then two piece group consisting of George Clarke and Kerry McCoy began work on Sunbather under the label Deathwish and recorded in several days in January 2013. The recording process brought a third member into the fold with drummer Dan Tracy who would go on to become a permanent fixture of the band. The album was recorded in The Atomic Garden Recording Studio, owned by Jack Shirley who had been a long time producer of the band. Although Deafheaven had been strongly influenced by black metal as well as other diverse metal acts, their music drew comparisons from music critics to shoegaze, post-rock, and alternative rock sounds. This trend was further continued on Sunbather. The melancholic songs featured in the album include Wall of Sound arrangements that are found in many shoegazing and post-rock acts, producing dense sounds that sometimes breakdown into slower, melodic parts that are then topped with vocalist George Clarke's reverb-soaked screaming style singing of lyrics. The album also contains a few interludes that include sampling, field recording, and droning. Sunbather was released in June 2013 and received universal critical acclaim, with Metacritic acknowledging it as "the best-reviewed major album" of the year. It has since been ranked as one of the best albums of the 2010s.
Reviews
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The album wouldn't have you guessing this is such a heavy album. It goes all over the place with the heaviness and the pace, but it just all fits. Loved it
Wholesome album about bathing in the sun! Summer vibes and fun for the whole family! 5/5!
Great metalgaze album with dark atmospheric soundscapes. Sounds like Sigur Rós, Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but more in a metal format.
Crazy that this is 12 years old now. I've never really though too much of the -gaze suffix of blackgaze, since it mostly boils down to heavy reverb instead of the effects soup that goes into true shoegaze band. It does create an atmosphere though!
I listened to their latest album earlier this year. Got a lot of great reviews. I heard it, I understood the importance, I got why people enjoyed it, but I did not like it. I feel the same for this album of theirs. Once again, I respect the whole of it, but it just isn’t my thing. I wish I could enjoy this. Glad that so many do. 4/5
Soundscapes rather than songs, with barely any vocals, but all the more evocative and atmospheric as a result.
These guys copped a lot of heat when this came out for not being "true metal" or whatever. Maybe it was because the cover art looks like it's going to be a pop album? Who knows. I think it was also decided that their fanbase was mostly hipsters, not guys in BATTLE JACKETS. Either way it's just mildly boring and tends to drag on in that way anything inspired by post-rock does. 3/5.
This was a little polarizing of an album to me. I thoroughly enjoyed the guitar work and instrumentals as a whole. Very dreamy, laid back yet forceful. Then the limited “singing” occurred which was just screaming unintelligible sounds. If this was merely an instrumental album I would rate it higher than what I just listened to. 5.2/10
Nothing evokes the serenity of basking in the warmth of our sun quite like being screamed at for an entire hour.
Little too much screaming but I liked the big sounding instrumentals. Probably won’t listen to them again though.
A bit screamier than I usually like, parts of this were still interesting to me. Not my cup of tea but I didn’t loathe it.
Rating: 6/10 Best songs: Irresistible
Cold
Absolutely loved Vertigo
Not sure about the "blackgaze" thing, sure it has quieter melodic interludes, but so does Metallica. Anyway this stuff always falls apart for me on the shrieky vocals, I just don't like it. It renders lyrics meaningless, making the vocals just a type of instrument, and one I don't care for the sound of. Which is a shame since for the most part I liked it musically.
An interesting experiment of mixing metal with the sort of ethereal soundscapes of (cribbing from another reviewer here) Sigur Rós. Mostly successful!
I gave this a full week before listening again as I had a headache and wasn’t in the right frame of mind last week, coming back to this fresh I can feel my headache coming back.
What the hell man? 50 minutes of unintelligible screaming?
Music was ok. The screeching not so much
That's too bad. I really like the guitars on Deafheaven's "Sunbather." But I really don't care for screaming as the sole vocals. All the bits without the screaming are quite good and would be a high 4 stars without the rest.
Just, why? Fascinates me how some music appeals to people.
Blackgaze, post-metal, atmospheric black metal. ¿Por qué grita sin sentido? Si fuese sólo instrumental, estaba hasta bien... Así, un 1.
Jag brukar försöka lyssna med ett öppet sinne men det går inte. Det är ett hemskt album.
The kind of Metal that I don’t need in my life and very quickly had to move on from