25 Best Metal Albums Of The Decade
2. Deafheaven - Sunbather (2013)
Sunbather is Marmite, but those into its gorgeous genre-melding sonic palate couldn't give a hoot about Deafhaven not being kvlt enough, or whatever. That's not the band's purpose. Guitarist Kerry McCoy is a devotee of Drudkh and Lantlos while frontman George Clarke has espoused the greatness of albums like Weakling's Dead as Dreams and Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse, but their focus has never been about replicating those touchstones. They're about taking those influences and making them fit seamlessly with seemingly disparate elements from other genres.
Deafheaven prompted the blackgaze explosion with Sunbather. As lush and dreamy as it is harsh, it is a perfect collage of black metal, shoegaze, and alt. rock textures. Its walls of sound are built of blast beats and post-rock cleans. Thematically, it's sentimental, bittersweet, and melancholic, and while Clarke's disillusion manifests primarily through shrieking, his emotional outpouring is reflected in the instrumentation.
Though opener "Dream House" is Deafheaven's signature track and the most perfect demonstration of what the band is all about, the biggest release comes through "The Pecan Tree's" closing passage. Driven by pianos, clean guitar tones, and Clarke's "I am my father's son / I am no one / I cannot love / It's in my blood," it is a perfect empathetic blowoff to this musical consecration.