Deafheaven is back withLonely People With Power, their sixth full-length album and possiblytheir best work ever.The band—vocalist George Clarke, guitarist Kerry McCoy, drummer Daniel Tracy, guitarist/keyboardist Shiv Mehra, and bassist Chris Johnson—has been the face of the “blackgaze” genre, fusing distortion-heavy shoegaze with post-punk, post-rock, and high-pitched howling and thunderous blastbeats of black metal. Deafheaven achieved a rare level of mainstream notoriety in 2013 with the release of their second album,Sunbather,whichappeared on many “best of” lists at the end of the year, and elevated the band to a new level.
In the decade since, they released the rawerNew Bermuda, incorporated more rock and alternative sounds onOrdinary Corrupt Human Love, and ditched the blast beats and snarling vocals for the dreamy alt-rockInfinite Granite. WithLonely People With Power, Deafheaven returns to the blackgaze sound with twelve tracks of fury. It is an album that’s bestexperienced from start to finish, and while there are no bad songs onLPWP, some capture Deafheaven’s sound better than others.
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11“Incidental III” (feat. Paul Banks)
Interpol And Deafheaven Are More Alike Than Thought
There are three “Incidental” tracks onLonely People With Power.The appearance of Paul Banks of Interpol on the final one is a lovely surprise, but “Incidental III” is more a prologue to the grandiose “Winona” than a separate track. This mirrors how “Incidental I” is just the lead-in to “Doberman,” something we’ll discuss in a bit.
Though “Incidental III" lacks the weight of “Incidental II,” the moment continues the disquieting, sparse dread running through the album. It also makes sense that Deafheaven and Interpol would be somehow linked. Both George Clarke and Paul Banks have undeniable charisma with their respective stage presences. Interpol got slagged off for being Joy Division wannabees when they first showed up, and Deafheaven often gets criticized for not being “true” black metal.
10“Body Behavior”
A Song That Makes You Wish The Radio Was Cooler
“Body Behavior” is a pretty straightforward song: a man shows a boy (his son?) some porn and it messes the kid up. The composition is also the most straightforward. Themusicexists without any effects and Clarke’s vocals are oddly comprehensive in parts.
It’s not bad, nor does it stick out. It’s different enough that it’s not lost in the shuffle (and you won’t hit NEXT when it comes up during your Spotify shuffle). The best and worst that can be said about this song is that it would be a radio single…if true rock radio existed in 2025 and if “Body Behavior” wasn’t 5:23 in length (but “Radio Edit” seems more blasphemous than anything said on this album).
9“The Garden Route”
A Familiar Deviation After Some Intense Thrashing
Musically, “The Garden Route” comes off as a wayward meteor that fell out ofOrdinary Corrupt Human Love’sorbit. On their 2018 album, Deafheaven deviated into softer guitars and more spacious sounds. There wasn’t the layering ofSunbather, andOCHLwas less raw thanNew Bermuda. That deviation would continue onInfinite Granite, butOCHLstill had the black metal snarl and snap.
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On “The Garden Route,” the band brings back theOCHLvibe and weaves it intoLonely People With Power’s tapestry. Following the intensity of “Doberman” and “Magnolia,” it’s a respite, familiar and comforting.
8“Heathen”
Infinite Granite’s Getting Reappraised After This
What makesLonely People WithPowerarguably Deafheaven’s best album is that it embraces all the band’s facets. The blackgaze makes peace with the clean vocals ofInfinite Granite. There’s room for all, as experienced on “Heathen.” Here, the band revisits their prior album with Clarke reflecting on an unnamed man with conflicted desires (“Who is he close with? Feeling he owes his sense of self to lusting”).
The band then accelerates intoOCHL-esquemetal thrashing, controlled but ferocious anger. And this is the glory: “Heathen” bridgesInfinite GraniteintoLonely People With Power. Deafheaven isn’t making a course correction from the previous album. They’re showing that any doubters were wrong, thatInfinite Granitewas as much a part of them asSunbather. They are wide. They contain multitudes.
7“Incidental I” / “Doberman”
An Incredible Opener
If you want to skip the 0:56 of “Incidental I” and get straight to “Doberman,” you may, but it will lessen the experience of listening toLonely People With Power. The first track introduces a musical theme revisited twice before the album ends. And “Incidental I” is a perfect companion to the opening blast of black metal goodness.
“Doberman” unfurlsLonely People With Power’slyrical themes—isolation, alienation, damnation. Clarke howls, “all hail now the panopticon, see all around me, all of my failure.” Later use of Biblical imagery (“I wanted the Garden of Eden / but fed my misgivings”) draws comparison to John Milton’sParadise Lost, with Satan proclaiming he’s in “infinite wrath and infinite despair. Which way I fly is hell: myself am hell.” It sets up the album nicely.
6“Incidental II” (feat. Jae Matthews)
Will We Get A Deafheaven Noise Rock Album Next?
The second “Incidental” song ushers in dread, alienation and loneliness, courtesy of Jae Matthews (of electronic duo Boy Harsher), whose haunting vocals waft over distortion that first bleeds into ghostly strings before bursting into a hellacious cacophony of industrial noise rock. This is pure horror. A24 could already be adapting it for its next release.
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Like every other “Incidental” onLonely People With Power, it is incomplete without the songs preceding and following it. “Incidental II” does stand on its own as a full sonic experience. But it does need “Revelator” the way the moon needs the sun.
5“Revelator”
Blackgaze Sludge Goodness, Spawning The Album’s Title
Here, we find the song from whichLonely People With Powergets its title. “Revelator” is a sludgy blast that invokes Mastodon or Lamb of God. Clarke weaves a tale of isolation and corruption, painting a political portrait with Biblical terms (“I’m clipping the flowers / of spiritless leaders / oh, they tremble in towers / Lonely people with power / devoured by God”).
Oh, you thought it was done at 3:53? Nope. After a minute of that lonely strumming (as heard in “Incidental II”), the song resumes with anguish and rage. Blasting all those praying “to not have it be them,” Clarke is the accuser. “It was me, it was you, converging in toto / Desperate to be left alone.” It’s possibly the heart of the record that should be revisited often.
4“Magnolia”
One Hell Of A Single
Building more on the themes of inescapable prisons, “Magnolia” references mental illness and “suicidal mania” inherited through genetics. “Show me now everything that I offer,” sings Clarke. “I saw my own father / lay the ground beneath me / I owned everything thought to be / I was everything taught to me.”
When Deafheaven announcedLonely People With Power, they also released “Magnolia” as a single. It assured fans they were returning to the black metal/blackgaze sound afterInfinite Granite, an album of dream pop-twinged alternative rock. It was a good choice for a lead single. With a distinctive opening riff and a surge that overloads the senses a minute in, it’s destined to be a staple of Deafheaven sets for years to come.
3“Amethyst”
An Epic Anchoring An Incredible Album
Lonely People With Power’s first half ends with “Amethyst,” an epic in all senses of the word. The album’s longest song embodies a sprawling sense ofgrandeurwithout exhausting your patience (that is, if you’re the type who loves 8-minute songs about struggling with covetous feelings, unfulfilling material goods, and finding oneself between “majesty and misanthropy.”)
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Deafheaven is quite good at being cinematic with its music, which is even more remarkable since you may not understand a single thing George Clarke is screaming. But their music conveys a sense of story; black metal cinematography details the struggles of wealth inequality (“Sunbather”) or being haunted by past loves (“Canary Yellow”). “Amethyst” is quintessential Deafheaven, and one of the best moments onLPWP.
2“Winona”
Modern Black Metal At Its Finest
IfLonely People With Poweris the amalgamation of every moment in Deafheaven’s career—the rawness of their debut,Roads To Judah, the dark struggle ofNew Bermuda, the pristineInfinite Granite—then “Winona” is the part when we revisitSunbather. It overloads the senses like Deafheaven’s breakthrough album did, conveying a magnificent burst of emotion and sound.
In these current times of strife and uncertainty, black metal shines best when revealing our insignificance; not in a pejorative sense of the word, mind you, but when this music strips away the falsehoods of power, righteousness and infallibility, leaving us naked and vulnerable, there’s something beautiful about that. If death metal is all about mutilation and the fragility of the body, then black metal is about rendering the mind and soul.
Bands like Panopticon, Alcest, Downfall of Gaia, Liturgy and Deafheaven are phenomenal in highlighting the damage carelessness inflicts on each other and our foolishness in thinking what we do is “right” and “just.” And “Winona” shows that (“Thinking I’d survive / with everything I was gaining,” sings Clarke. “Behind the curtain I was sinking / with everything I’m supposed to be.”) It’s not just one ofLPWP’s best songs, it’s one of Deafheaven’s best.
