I'm well aware that my song choice this week is not going to garner a lot of new fans. Black Metal is, at its absolute best, a divisive genre, and even beyond the massive barrier for entry, we're opening ourselves to the frightening world of subgenre nomenclature in heavy metal. "Is Deafheaven truly Black Metal," you say? "Maybe they're post-metal?" "What does that even mean?" "No, they're not Metal at all, they're just an indie band pretending to be metal," chimes in the purist. "Have you actually heard them? It's metal!"
The point of all this is that there's a good chance you won't make it through the nine-minute runtime of "Dream House," and if you do there's an even greater chance you won't make it through the full album's winding hour. And while that's fine - it's not for everyone - it's also a shame. Because Sunbather is a masterpiece, and beneath its craggy and off-putting exterior there lurks something poetic and even, dare I say, beautiful.
For starters, let's just transcribe the lyrics of this song, as even I admit they're pretty much incomprehensible on the first run through - or even subsequent ones. This is an album that benefits greatly from an annotated listening.
Now, there's an argument to be made that this doesn't matter - that having to go look up the lyrics to a song, instead of being able to understand them naturally, sort of invalidates any poetry or meaning they could produce. It's like saying you're good at a video game when you play with a strategy guide open on your lap the entire time. And that's a perfectly valid point. I'd say it's inarguably true that, if Sunbather were a bit more comprehensible and a bit less extreme, Clarke and McCoy's message would reach a far greater audience - and said audience would probably be much less quick to reject it. But at the same time, I think that betrays a higher truth to their art form.
Up top, I mentioned that one of the subgenres one could classify Deafheaven under would be something called 'post-metal.' Now, defining this is a nebulous and frankly navel-gaze-y process, and for the sake of brevity let's just say that as postmodernism is to literature, post-metal is to metal. There's a meta-esque playfulness to the entire thing, an awareness of the tropes and tricks of the metal genre and a willingness to subvert them. And there's also this idea, quite popular in po-mo literature, that form is content, and content, form; a very highbrow way of saying that what something is about, the subject matter, should be reflect in the way it sounds. A piece about happiness and joy should sound joyful and happy; a piece about misery and depression should sound miserable and depressed.
And therein lies the reality of Deafheaven, the reason why I love them and the reason why I'll share them, even if some may find them off-putting or even unlistenable. The songs, and the inherent poetry of their lyricism, is nothing without the harsh musicality that accompanies them. The subject matter they cover, the pain the express, is at once reflected in and countered by the harsh vocals and beautiful melodies the band has become known for. Anything else would simply not be true to who they are and the music they play. And anything else would lack the sublime beauty they've come to be known for.
The point of all this is that there's a good chance you won't make it through the nine-minute runtime of "Dream House," and if you do there's an even greater chance you won't make it through the full album's winding hour. And while that's fine - it's not for everyone - it's also a shame. Because Sunbather is a masterpiece, and beneath its craggy and off-putting exterior there lurks something poetic and even, dare I say, beautiful.
For starters, let's just transcribe the lyrics of this song, as even I admit they're pretty much incomprehensible on the first run through - or even subsequent ones. This is an album that benefits greatly from an annotated listening.
Hindered by sober restlessnessSubmitting to the amber crutch.The theme in my aching prose.Fantasizing the sight of Manhattan;That pour of a bitter red being that escapes a thin frame. The rebirth of mutual loveThe slipping on gloves to lay tenderly.
Not quite what you expected, is it? George Clarke and Kerry McCoy, vocals and lead guitar respectively, make up the primary song-writing contingent of Deafheaven, and they bring an incredible thoughtfulness to the table, one that isn't afraid to stare their demons in the eye and lay their souls bare on the track. Addiction and insecurity are frequently discussed, and in a way that leaves little to the imagination. Interludes such as "Please Remember" and "Windows" are heartbreakingly honest portraits of human faults, expressed with a beauty that stands in shocking contrast to their dark nature."I'm dying."- "Is it blissful?""It's like a dream."- "I want to dream."
Now, there's an argument to be made that this doesn't matter - that having to go look up the lyrics to a song, instead of being able to understand them naturally, sort of invalidates any poetry or meaning they could produce. It's like saying you're good at a video game when you play with a strategy guide open on your lap the entire time. And that's a perfectly valid point. I'd say it's inarguably true that, if Sunbather were a bit more comprehensible and a bit less extreme, Clarke and McCoy's message would reach a far greater audience - and said audience would probably be much less quick to reject it. But at the same time, I think that betrays a higher truth to their art form.
Up top, I mentioned that one of the subgenres one could classify Deafheaven under would be something called 'post-metal.' Now, defining this is a nebulous and frankly navel-gaze-y process, and for the sake of brevity let's just say that as postmodernism is to literature, post-metal is to metal. There's a meta-esque playfulness to the entire thing, an awareness of the tropes and tricks of the metal genre and a willingness to subvert them. And there's also this idea, quite popular in po-mo literature, that form is content, and content, form; a very highbrow way of saying that what something is about, the subject matter, should be reflect in the way it sounds. A piece about happiness and joy should sound joyful and happy; a piece about misery and depression should sound miserable and depressed.
And therein lies the reality of Deafheaven, the reason why I love them and the reason why I'll share them, even if some may find them off-putting or even unlistenable. The songs, and the inherent poetry of their lyricism, is nothing without the harsh musicality that accompanies them. The subject matter they cover, the pain the express, is at once reflected in and countered by the harsh vocals and beautiful melodies the band has become known for. Anything else would simply not be true to who they are and the music they play. And anything else would lack the sublime beauty they've come to be known for.
No comments:
Post a Comment