Deafheaven and Black-Gaze

5/25/25

James Lisnek

KCSB FM

Deafheaven is a Post-Black-Metal band from San Francisco that occasionally dips into the Shoegaze genre, giving their discography a dynamic but distinct sound. Deafheaven’s singer, George Clarke, possesses an incredible ability to shape his voice to match the intensity of the Post-Black-Metal genre. The style of singing can only be described as guttural or shriek-like, but this artistic choice allows listeners to feel the raw emotion coming from the singer and by proxy, the other members of the band, which is what I love most about the music. Their iconic Post-Black-Metal sound can be noted throughout all of their releases, starting with  the album that thrusted them into the spotlight, “Sunbather”. “Sunbather”,released in 2013, displayed their beautifully dark and dirty sound. Over time Deafheaven began to innovate their sound, evolving into a mix of Post-Black-Metal and Shoegaze which some have called “Black-Gaze”. This introduction of Shoegaze to their discography began with the release of “Infinite Granite” back in 2021, which was received by a lukewarm fan base who really enjoyed their Black-Metal presence rather than their experimental Shoegaze sound. We are going to take a dive into this cross section between Post-Black-Metal and Shoegaze.

”Irresistible” off of Deafheavens 2013 album “Sunbather”, is the earliest example of the slow, down to earth and mournful sound from the band. The song features two guitars and a piano. No drums or vocals are present in this song, just a mournful guitar duet  which is intercepted by a piano halfway through to take the weight off of guitars. ”Irresistible” demonstrates a sound that is not fully Shoegaze nor Post-Black-Metal, but still Deafheaven shows their audience early that they are more than just a group of screaming Post-Black-Metal artists, they are also musicians with a dynamic approach to the music writing experience.

”Baby Blue”, a song from the 2015 album “New Bermuda”, is a perfect example of this dynamism in regards to the early developments of the genre “Black-Gaze”. The song starts by presenting a light and airy series of guitars soundtracking the performance of the drummer, but after roughly 3 minutes of this gorgeous Shoegaze performance the song drops  into the gritty Post-Black-Metal sound. The light and airy guitars become heavy and dirty, complimenting the guttural sound of the singer. “Baby Blue” demonstrates the capabilities of Deafheaven and teases the idea of a Shoegaze future for the band. 

“Near”is Deafheaven’s first fully Shoegaze song, coming from their album “Ordinary Corrupt Human Love” released in 2018. The song starts with the light and airy guitar, followed by a complimentary bass line that gives the song depth. The final piece is the drum sound, which accentuates the floating effect given by the guitar. About halfway through the song the vocals make their first appearance which demonstrates that droney/tired sound we hear from Shoegaze vocalists. With these elements, Deafheaven has crafted their first official Shoegaze song, but by no means is the rest of the album a Shoegaze album, that is yet to come…

This journey of Deafheaven’s experimentation with the Shoegaze genre is actualized by the release of ”Infinite Granite” in 2021. The band’s fan base filled with Post-Black-Metal enthusiasts, were shocked by the statement of a metal band fully relying on the tropes of Shoegaze. Many did not like it, but when you look at Deafheaven’s discography, they sprinkle in Shoegaze tropes throughout all their albums; it was simply a matter of time before they devoted their efforts to an only Shoegaze title. As I mentioned, “Infinite Granite” is an album entirely concerned with the rudiments of Shoegaze from beginning to end. Due to this, I want to emphasize a song that demonstrates the inverse of the Shoegaze tone seen throughout the album. “Mombasa”  is a song which, at the end of the album, really breaks the shackles Deafheaven restrained themselves with in terms of the album's theme being Shoegaze.  “Mombasa” begins with the usual elements of Shoegaze, but about half way through, the Post-Black-Metal sound Deafheaven is known for rears its brutal head which turns the beautiful Shoegaze melodies into the fast, powerful, and aggressive origins of Deafheaven. This sudden change in instrumentation both provides a shock value to the previously understood tone of the album and also teases the future of Deafheaven and what their projects may sound like going forward; similar to what they did with the teasing of the Shoegaze genre earlier in their releases.

After 4 years, Deafheaven created a perfect intersection between the Black-Metal and Shoegaze genres with their newest release “Lonely People With Power”. This album is a mixture of all the sounds and styles Deafheaven has experimented with, while keeping a perfect balance between the Post-Black-Metal and Shoegaze genres “Magnolia”,the first song from the band after years of silence, was a single released in early 2025 which acted as the first teaser to the album “Lonely People With Power”. The song demonstrates Deafheaven’s approach to the “Black-Gaze” tone, pacing and instrumentation which are emphatic on double bass drum patterns that compliment the melodic, but heavy drive of the guitars; the vocalist ties the song in a neat pretty bow by returning to the guttural and shriek like vocals that command the narrative function of the song. “Magnolia” is dirty and gritty, but really returns to the roots of their sound demonstrated in albums like “Sunbather” (2013) , “New Bermuda” (2015) and “Ordinary Corrupt Human Love” (2018) and has fans anticipating their next release, knowing that Deafheaven’s Post-Black-Metal presence has returned.