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.
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.
