Deafheaven have re-embraced black metal with new single Magnolia.
The track, released today (January 27), is the first single of upcoming album Lonely People With Power, which will come out on March 28 via Roadrunner Records.
Listen to the song and see the new album’s artwork and tracklisting below.
Lonely People With Power will follow 2021’s Infinite Granite, which saw Deafheaven stray from their usual blackgaze sound and use almost entirely melodic vocals and clean guitars.
In a three-star review, Metal Hammer’s Christina Wenig praised the beauty of the California band’s new songs but criticised their lack of intensity.
“Remember the rush of blood to the head you felt when [2013 song] Dreamhouse kicked in?” she wrote. “That won’t happen here. And it’s not because [vocalist] George Clarke switched from his trademark shrieks to clean vocals and whispers – a bold, if not necessarily always a good move. It’s because somewhere along the way, Deafheaven have lost some of the intensity that had previously made them irresistible.”
Deafheaven formed in 2010 and released their debut album, Roads To Judah, in 2011. 2013 follow-up Sunbather made the band cult darlings, drawing rave reviews as they brought the blackgaze sound, pioneered by the likes of French band Alcest, to American audiences.
In 2019, the song Honeycomb, from fourth album Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, earned Deafheaven a nomination for Grammy Award For Best Metal Performance.
The band say that Lonely People With Power will mark their “most ambitious release yet”. It was produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Nine Inch Nails, St Vincent, M83) at EastWest Studios in Los Angeles and will feature guest vocals Jae Matthews of Boy Harsher and Paul Banks of Interpol.
Deafheaven have several US and European festival dates set for 2025 and say that they will announce tour dates to support their new album “in the coming days”. Get details of all current live plans via the band’s website.
Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power
01. Incidental I
02. Doberman
03. Magnolia
04. The Garden Route
05. Heathen
06. Amethyst
07. Incidental II
08. Revelator
09. Body Behavior
10. Incidental III
11. Winona
12. The Marvelous Orange Tree
