"Infinite Granite" by Deafheaven (THEIR LAMEST ALBUM YET?) | ALBUM REVIEW
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- Deafheaven's switch to full blown post-rock and shoegaze is interesting, but not enough to excuse some lackluster and forgettable song-writing.
"Infinite Granite" by Deafheaven
Released August 20th 2021 via Sargent House
Produced by Justin Meldal-Johnson
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#Deafheaven #PostRock #Shoegaze #AlternativeRock #Blackgaze #BlackMetal #TheMetalMeltdown
Good news: The comments are way more respectful than I figured they'd be.
Bad news: Worst. Drinking game. Ever.
A Surprise to be sure, but a welcomed one
I’m honestly shocked with the comments I thought we would get a shit load of comments of Metal Elitists/Trve Kvlt Black Metal nerds bitching about Deafheaven not making a metal record lol.
I'm thankful for the respectful comments too. I doubt that either of us want a repeat of what happened with comments on your last Five Finger Death Punch review.
@@amandusbjorklund7935 Lets be honest, even if by some miracle we would give their albums a 3.5/5 or a 7/10 they would still find any reasons to nitpick and spend half of their days arguing why FFDP is the best metal band of all time
@@AstolfoTheRiderOfBlack Lets say that that miracle does occur. I'm actually curious as to what they would use as an argument. I mean, Five Finger Death Punch hasn't exactly made any fantastic music nor have they really done anything to make metal music better. They copy Pantera in almost every way, but that doesn't mean that Five Finger Death Punch invented Groove Metal. I honestly wonder what Five Finger Death Punch fans would say to this.
As a huge fan of Post-rock/metal, Shoegaze, and also Dream pop, I think this album is great!
I don't mind Deafheaven going more into this style, the ultimate would be if they could be more "doomy" like the amazing band Holy Fawn.
5 favorites of the new album: Great Mass of Color, Villain, In Blur, Mombasa & Lament for Wasps.
I’m about to see Deafheaven play with Holy Fawn in a week in Lawrence
Saw deafheaven and holy fawn in atlanta. i ascended
This is probably my AOTY at the moment but you do make very good points. I personally really enjoy every song here. Shellstar and In Blur are absolutely fantastic and there some great crescendos and atmosphere on this record in my opinion.
Was very respectable with your words and I actually do mark this as a strong record which makes it one of my favourites of the year. I admire shoegaze and the band did a brave and different mark that worked in my opinion. Very good review and power to you with your views
I love your disclaimers before every non-stellar review. They crack me up.
Its growing on me. But i loved their last album honeycomb and canary yellow back to back is so awesome. I felt like they had an opportunity to insert more heavy climaxes in the songs. Its more background music for me, good to relax to. Big departure from what i used to turn on deafheaven for. I hope they keep the shoegaze but insert a little more heavy in future released because they do it so well. Their drummer was under utilized in this album.
Dude, you’re as articulate and perceptive as Fantano and deserve an equal number of subscribers. Cheers!
You are far too kind friend, thank you \m/
lmao funniest comment ever
Deafheaven works better this way. But I don’t want them to abandon their metal side because I love new Bermuda. It’s like a heavier extension of infinite granite
Deafheaven so far have either AMAZING albums or meh/ Bad albums to me. I would say that Deafheaven is the Metallica of Blackgaze. I really liked Infinite Granite 1st listen,but on my 2nd and 3rd listen when I started to dissect this album and try to find out what it was I liked about this record and………… I could not find much enjoyable here. . The production I don’t like since I can barely hear what the instruments are doing, samey, George is either Really good or really mediocre. Mombasa is the only track I really like. The rest I find to be forgettable. Alcest did Shoegaze WAAAAYYYYY better on Shelter. Yeah this is a very mediocre album to me 2/5. Disappointing since I thought Ordinary Corrupt Human Love was an incredible album and their best album.
Nice review, I thought you did a great job of laying out what you didn't like about the record without being overly negative and bashing the band (Fantano seems to take pleasure in this based on his OCHL review and now Infinite Granite). As a massive fan of the band from pretty early on, I can definitely appreciate your points and even agree with them to some extent, though I definitely enjoy the record more than you.
George's vocals are a pretty mixed bag for me, it doesn't really detract from enjoying most of the songs, but his voice goes from really working for me at some points to almost grating on me in other points, sometimes even within the same track. I'm not a big fan of the whispering vocal style that he does, it might work well on a track like Great Mass of Color, but it doesn't sit right for me during Shellstar, a song I otherwise really like. In terms of the emotion he conveys I think it's fine, the lyrics and overall mood of the album is pretty melancholy as shoegaze tends to be despite the brighter/shimmering instrumentation. And in terms of shoegaze and post-punk style vocals, it's pretty par for the course, the worst I can say is it lacks some identity. Hopefully if they stick with this style he can find a little more confidence and consistency in his delivery.
Your point about the songs following the same formulas is probably my main complaint about the record. I can't say it doesn't work for me, because I still find myself enjoying most moments on the album as I'm listening to it, but when I zoom out and look at the bigger picture, it becomes more clear that they are using the same tricks. It's probably why Lament For Wasps is my favorite track, because it seems to be the biggest departure from that formula overall, touches on some of their more aggressive tendencies, and feels the most like one of their classic epic tracks that goes through multiple phases of tension and release that make Deafheaven such a great band. Mombasa is another great example.
As you mentioned, I think this album lays the groundwork for a successful synthesis of these two sounds in the future. The more pretty and melodic shoegaze mixed with their older blackened metal influence, as evidenced by Lament, Villain, and Mombasa. And they've proven they can write a standard hooky verse/chorus track with Great Mass of Color. I thought the playing from everyone on this album was fantastic, especially the drumming which feels like it gives all the songs a metallic weight that you don't normally hear in shoegaze or post-rock. The production also really worked for me, this feels like their most lush and dense album ever sonically. So if they can strike a better balance of their softer and heavier elements, tighten up and hone in on a more unique vocal style, and vary up the songwriting a bit more I think they could have a genuine masterpiece on the level of some of their past work. But for Infinite Granite I'm feeling like a 7.5, my least favorite album by them by a fair margin but I still enjoy it quite a bit and honestly more than I expected to.
7:32 You were mentioning Enslaved. That band has an EP called Caravans to the Outer World coming out on October 1st.
I'm well aware
I expect a return to post-black, I got disappointed, but the ending kind of hints at something I believe, maybe they learn from this.
I loved this album, Mombasa was a shock to me when I first heard it. It was building and building throughout the album and then it explodes at the end. I felt the emotion on this, brilliant record. This reminded me a lot of Alcest Shelter but they didn’t have a explosive ending like Infinite Granite did
I am in love with this album and this band, but I totally appreciate this review with your views. Thank you 🖤
You're welcome!
Deafheaven is my favorite band ever and I make no apologies for it.
Late to reply here, but ultimately Infinite Granite to me seems like a missed opportunity. They had the opportunity to push further into Shoegaze/ Post Rock while maintaining core elements of Black metal vocalisation and blast beats which could have been genuinely exciting. Almost 3:30 minute pop songs but still managing to keep core elements that made the band exciting. Instead they went full shoe gaze post rock and wrote basic pop structured songs with clean singing. I imagine in my head The Gnashing with the vocal style of their previous records and I think that would be genuinely thrilling to listen to.
I see the points being made and I respect it. Shoot I'll even agree, In Blur doesn't do much for me. That song specifically is and I quote " Background Music". But Infinite Granite is album of the year for me.
More power to ya man, glad you got more out of it than me.
I wanted an album that sounded like Black Brick, or a return to their Postblack / Blackgaze roots. Instead we got bland shoe-gazey post rock trash. This album is even worse than the last that is saying something.
Been a fan since their last cd. Amazing new cd & very Melodic. I label the new Deafheaven cd as Post-Metalgaze while their past cds are Post-Blackgaze.
I have to agree on your comment regarding spicing the tracks up with some black metal passages. However after 4-5 listens I ended up loving the record. Perhaps it was a grower for me. What really sold me was the production and textures they used throughout. "Neptune Raining Diamonds" was somewhat of a redundancy and "The Gnashing" ended up being my least favorite of all the promotional singles (even though I initially wasn't hooked on "Great Mass of Color"). Really appreciated George's vocals throughout the album and Daniel keeps being a beast of a drummer.
"Mombasa" however, absolutely floored me and perhaps the first half of the song resonated with me more than the latter. But to be honest the fact that the album closer was so good might be the reason I find replay value in Infinite Granite. Perhaps that's also the reason I didn't enjoy OCHL as much.
But yeah, very nicely formulated review, quite detailed. Keep'em coming!
To any metal elitists who may be reading this comment, I love Deafheaven and this album and offer absolutely no apologies for enjoying this band and album. The only explanation I offer is that I enjoy the music.
Clarification: I like but don't love this album. I forgot to specify that.
do these guys listen mora than once?
They really blew their load with Sunbather. Who sets out to define a genre by writing their own Master of Puppets out of the gate? I'll still check it out bc I have to hear everything. Metal music ocd.
I thought the same thing when I discovered Sunbather years after its release. And then all subsequent albums have grown on me, including Infinite Granite. I think the beauty of the lyrics and compositions is what sells me on deafhaven. They are pretty elite artistically, which I know can drive people away as much as it attracts.
I'm pretty lukewarm on Deafheaven as whole. I liked Sunbather and OCHL, but this album is unbelievably boring. Each song is pretty predicable and lacks hooks to keep them from blending together with the exception of Mombasa.
At least they are doing something they are good at.
And not fucking with and appropriating a supposedly “untouchable” genre.
If you wanna hear a new album that succeeds this year where Deafheaven has failed, CZECH OUT Woman is the Earth's new album: Dust of Forever
I respect how you started the review lol. Good album.
Very fair review, I think it's a pretty cool album but wouldn't rate it higher than a 7 or 8 out of 10. Compared to other albums where bands of this genre have shed their black metal influence, I don't think it's as good as the new Lantlos, but it is a much stronger example than Alcest's Shelter imo.
It's an interesting catch-22 where doing something unique to them (i.e. not doing another blackgaze album, giving us something we haven't heard from Deafheaven specifically) is nothing that groundbreaking in the broader musical landscape. Personally, I think they are being true to themselves at this point in time and I think it was an honest decision to make an album like this.
Ever since Sunbather, I don't think Deafheaven can ever live up to their hype. As a huge fan of 80s new wave and 90s alternative, along with black metal and blackgaze, I really respect this album, tho it does drag.
I thought New Bermuda>Sunbather. Sunbather was great, but I just felt they cleaned up the formula so much more in Bermuda.
Sunbather is great but Bermuda is miles better and OCHL, not as good as Bermuda, is still better than Sunbather
I’m not a hardcore Deafheaven fan so I don’t have any biases related to the sound change throwing me off or anything like that. I did really enjoy Sunbather, but never bothered to go deep into their discography. I do like a bit of softer blackgaze too, so this really should have been an album for me. While I did enjoy listening to this album, it really wasn’t memorable or impactful in any way. I thought the atmosphere was really enjoyable, but when the album ended, it was too easy to just move on without it really having impacted me in any way.
I don’t know what shoegaze is but this is the kind of music that you can kick back and smoke a fat one to 😎
My first album as a Deafheaven fan and while i found it to be a good listen, chances are it would be at the bottom of the list in an album ranking. I'm feeling similar to Jamie with Harakiri For The Sky on this one.
Good thing is there's no trace of Black Metal here so the purists have nothing to bitch about, unless they are closeted fans.
Last I heard they were bitching for that exact reason lol. Black metal nerds are infamously impossible to please - give em exactly what they ask for and they still complain.
@@themetalmeltdownofficial Jon Nodtveidt of Dissection bitched to Dan Swanö about Storm Of The Light's Bane sounding too similar to At The Gates and told him to re-record the whole album. All of this after telling him they wanted a Melodic Death approach.
That's the more hardcore side of the Black Metal fanbase retracted right there.
I really enjoyed the album a lot, and the one point I'll add in comparison to the other albums, it doesn't have the same type of emotion the others do as this one isn't really metal at all. A more relaxing album and that's not a diss on them, I usually like a lot of energy in any genre.
Seriously well put…I love all previous deafheaven records but this album did almost nothing for me and I find it super disappointing…Mombasa is okay, along with villain but otherwise won’t be listening a second time 🥱😥
"This is the definition of what i would call: Background music"
Sums up my initial thoughts pretty well. The album is Okay for background music, but nothing more and less, i don't hate the album. but i definitely don't like it either, at least with some bad records i get some kind of enjoyment out of it while listening to them, like with Tickets To My Downfall by MGK, but with this record...i just felt completely neutral, its not bad, but i wouldn't call this my favorite album, or an album that i would go back to listening to. 2.5/5 for me
You're clearly new to shoegaze if you think it's just background music
@@greatcoldemptiness you're not wrong, but here is the thing, when i listen to any type of music, i want to have fun, even with bad records like Thousand Foot Krutch's Phenomenon, at least i do have some kind of fun with it, hell even Metallica's St. Anger is kind of fun, with Infinite Granite. i just don't have fun, if a song or an album can't get some kind of emotion out of me, be it excitement or hatred towards a record, its just not fun to listen to it, Megadeth's Rust in Piece is a fun album, Avenged Sevenfold's Sounding The Seventh Trumpet is so bad its fun to listen to. Infinite Granite by Deafheaven? its not fun..not at all, it feels emotionless to me, kind of the same way as to how i feel of this record...completely emotionless.
Yeah, the melon destroyed this album. Lol
I actually felt bad for the band while watching that video.
Since this is such a genre shift I wonder if it will take an album or two for them to find their way completely out of black metal.
Some of his comments were harsh as fuck lol, I admire the brutal hobesty though. I dont always agree with him but ill still always hear him out.
It's not the most exciting album but I do think it's a relaxing album for casual gaming. I liked it
My favourite genre these days is probably blackgaze/post-black metal. I think that the bands that are doing the most interesting things within the loose confines of the genre do a fantastic job of channeling the mood of The Cure, the dynamics of Mono and the Brutality of bands like Cryptopsy or Inferi. Deafheaven have never been what I would consider to be a particularly interesting band. There have been the occasional moments on a few of their tracks, but overall their tracks just sound uninspired or intentionally dumbed down versions of ideas from other artists.
The comparison to Slowdive is enough to make me give it a listen, at some point in the not too distant future. I am not expecting much, based on the tracks that were released prior to the full album.
Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I seriously doubt that I will be.
I never liked Deafheaven...I always thought they were just mehhh, but this album is pretty great. I think they found what they should have sounded like to begin with. It's really good shoegaze.
I thought it was a good album, but I didn't want it from them.
I actually liked the music until I saw the live performances. I'm just not into Hitler Youth vibe I guess, then it tainted the recorded versions for me. Like what is that about.
This is gonna be Deafheaven's "A Thousand Suns" moment--a VERY divisive record that will take years for fans to appreciate, just like the aforementioned Linkin Park album from 2010. I love the record, but I can very easily see why you don't. Oh well. Different strokes for different folks.
I liked this album! I thought that the band did a pretty good job with a completely different sound
I definitely agree, I was excited for this but I just found it to be so bland and unimaginative.
I agree 100%
Hmm, it's alright I guess. Background music is a perfect description. Even though I like the shoegazy sound, the heavy parts are where this album shines. I mean this is why I like Deafheaven; they are able to create a perfect blend of dreamy shoegaze sounds with dark and heavy riffs. However, I was already not a fan of Ordinary Corrupt Human Love and after a first listen i find Infinite Granit pretty forgettable.
At least this one is gonna be hard to hate on for the so-called metal elitists because it doesnt try to be a metal album. That being said; dear elitists if you don't give their earlier stuff (especially New Bermuda IMO, which I will defend to my deathbed) a chance, you're seriously missing out. If you check it out and don't like it, that's ok. But everyone should give this band a chance.
It just feels empty in comparison to their previous works. I honestly like shoegaze, but their take on shoegaze just feels so lifeless and cliched. Absolutely hate that they gutted arguably the best part of their sound to make room for Whirr 2.0.
Slaughter to Prevail became big all on their own without all the media hype and dick sucking bands like Deafheaven get. Music is for the people, not for the gatekeepers to tell the people what they think is good. No I dont think Slaughter to Prevail is amazing, I just thinks its funny how metalcore and deathcore succeeds despite all the critics and elitists shitting on it and not giving it the time of day. Deafheaven only has less than 300,000 monthly Spotify listeners will all that hype and praise they got from both non metal AND metal sites and similar heavily hyped bands have even less listeners than that. Critical acclaim literally doesnt matter in rock and metal, Never has. Go all the way back to Rolling Stone shitting on Led Zepplin in the 70's.
Hmmmm I'll give it a try.
Go for it! Hopefully you'll get more out of it than me.
Could've saved us the grandstanding in the beginning but enjoyed the review
Hype has always been an impediment and detrimental to this band. They would be a perfect example of how the concept of inspiration, imitation and innovation within the current social media commingling with the new pseudo intellectual internet version of court of public opinion. In short Deafheaven is a necessary evil within the music world despite toning down the evil aspects, that were always in some way toned down, thus truly evil?
Not evil is the new evil
@@themetalmeltdownofficial 👏🏽😆
@UCMtWYbdKF7f90UcmX1n5Eyg I’m not so sure they deserve such credit. I mean it’s not like other bands have tried what they tried or focuses heavily on marketing. Overhype to me seems like overrated and I’m not under no delusion/illusion that they are. Saying their masters of their own positivity and negativity? Wow. I mean that’s damn impressive.
Was meh about this one
I liked it better than Lingua Ignota new album that's just my opinion
I love Deafheaven but this album was lazy trash
I've tried three times. I can't make it through more than a couple songs before I turn something else on. It's quite boring and goes no where.
@@steventhompson6451 Yeah, there is so much good shoegaze coming out right now and this ain't it. Not uptempo enough and not crushing enough to keep my interest
This album is a midlife crisis lmfao. Ever since Nick Bassett left its been downhill.
Daaaamn not sure id go that far but its a great line
I’m not a hardcore Deafheaven fan so I don’t have any biases related to the sound change throwing me off or anything like that. I did really enjoy Sunbather, but never bothered to go deep into their discography. I do like a bit of softer blackgaze too, so this really should have been an album for me. While I did enjoy listening to this album, it really wasn’t memorable or impactful in any way. I thought the atmosphere was really enjoyable, but when the album ended, it was too easy to just move on without it really having impacted me in any way.