Deafheaven’s new album, Lonely People With Power, is the album of the year for me.

I played in a “shoegaze” band with friends after highschool. It primed me to appreciate a certain attitude to vocals - that they were not all that special in the grand scheme of things, that they had a role to play in a song that undoubtedly goes beyond the conveying of lyrics and leading a melody, and they are not merely supported by a bunch of tertiary instruments who are second fiddle.Sunbather was the first black metal album I’d ever heard. I remember loving it, and being frustrated by the idiotic purism that made up much of the criticism towards that album - from black metal elitists obsessed with their genre’s terrible production and the ‘authenticity’ this is supposed to convey. George Clarke’s vocals are texturally powerful and align with the band’s music perfectly. Sunbather’s melodies were sweet and melancholy, and the new album does this even better, and with greater diversity. Its subject matter is exciting and compelling. Until LPWP, my favorite Deafheaven had been New Bermuda. The riffs are incredible, he has the voice of a wildcat. I have probably listened to it many more times than Sunbather at this point. Deafheaven makes music whose purpose is to be art. It is not some sad byproduct of half-hearted disavowed “I could care less what you think” music. They have made great art in LPWP. I don’t know if they would describe it this way. I don’t mean anything high minded by ‘art’ - just that it is to be felt, and isn’t selling itself short or disavowing the magnitude of feeling it means to convey. Most hardcore, for what it’s worth, does. I love hardcore, I listen to it every single day - but it is in some sense more utlitarian and doesn’t usually set the bar high. That’s totally ok, and part of what makes it endearing. Metal often aims for ‘art’ in my sense, and I appreciate that in some ways more.

If you like metal, you surely have listened to it already. If you want to like metal, it might be a place you can start. I think eventually a person has to get over themselves and enjoy music with harsh vocals, past a certain point refusing it on the grounds of “I don’t like screaming” is philistinism. I sound harsh, maybe, but indeed this common attitude towards such music, as opposed to say classical or country music which are also sometimes not people’s main thing, is uniquely stark. My life is better for my enjoyment - my sometimes actively/consciously-nurtured capacity to enjoy genres based on harsh vocals and distortion. My life is also better for liking blast beats and playing the riff at the beginning of ‘Black Brick’ literally every time I pick up a guitar. After all, harsh vocal styles have been around for a long time in subcultural music - longer than most of us have been alive, now. It is a massive umbrella of different styles, probably as internally varied as is the sum of what lies outside that umbrella. It is worth the time, and worth it to cultivate the desire, to overcome one’s aversion. I listened to Converge’s Jane Doe not because I liked it at first, but because everyone I knew did, and I was able to understand even then that this meant I probably should, too. It was the right choice - and I am grateful I made an effort to like it. It paid off, and opened many other avenues of musical and artistic enjoyment for me. Indeed, I’ve never been convincd by someone saying that some music was not worth listening to and trying to enjoy. That’s not a route I’ve ever taken - everything deserves a chance.

Hegel describes the ‘beginnings’ of science as vulgar empiricism. We can’t have theories, reasons, etc. without some simple exposure. After exposure, we can make a plan for how to approach it. Scientific method for this reason can’t really exist as one general scheme: objects tell us how to study them, not the other way around. The appreciation of art is no different.

In classic dialectical fashion, I came around to clean vocal styles in metal only much later. Now I consider, for example, Pallbearer a beloved and favorite band (actually - I first saw Pallebearer open for Deafheaven in like 2015 - I bought Sorrow and Extinction and stayed up until 3am on a work night listening to it on repeat, just completely electrified by its slow, heavy, drama and clean vocals that I could never have appreciated until that day. The mournful melody charged with a visible effort that the vocalist made to reach the notes. It was extremely profound to me at the time, visceral and emotional, to watch him strive to hit the notes he was aiming for. As someone too shy to sing a single note in front of another person, his vulnerability was a big deal to me. By the way, he was great - it was just clear how much he worked for that).

Anyway, I’d listen to the whole thing front to back in this case: but if you’re not sure, I think ‘Winona’ is the crown jewel:

Lonely People With Power