Deafheaven releases Lonely People With Power

Deafheaven returns with Lonely People With Power , a record that no longer seeks to shock but to unite. Without denying its past experiments, the band offers a masterful version of what makes its identity—sometimes brilliant, sometimes conventional, but always sincere.

After three years of silence, Deafheaven returns with Lonely People With Power, a new album released on March 28th via Roadrunner Records. Far from choosing between its influences, the band continues to explore this strange blend of black metal, shoegaze and ethereal post-rock.

Produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen (M83, St. Vincent), the album alternates between frontal assaults and more aerial escapes, without ever falling into caricature. George Clarke hasn't traded in his screams, but also leaves room for breathing. A few guests come to confuse the issue a little more, like Jae Matthews of Boy Harsher and Paul Banks of Interpol.

Rougher than Infinite Granite, less abrasive than their debut, Lonely People With Power offers a unique synthesis of all the facets of their discography. Post-punk even enters the equation on Body Behaviour, a powerful hit that mixes martial bass and vocal audacity. We find echoes of Sunbather, traces of the dream pop turn of Infinite Granite, but also new textures. This mixture, far from being confused, is precisely the strength of the album.

Behind the sonic breadth, we still sense this obsession with Californian duality, between Hollywood mirage and ordinary despair. A dense, haunted, generous album—and perhaps the band's most mature to date.