Deafheaven have returned. The San Francisco blackgaze progenitors have announced that their fifth album, Infinite Granite, will arrive later this summer via Sargent House. The album marks a highly melodic new direction for the band, and they're previewing the pivot with a crystalline lead single called "Great Mass of Color."
Whereas previous Deafheaven albums combined the pained shrieks and dark atmospheres of black metal with the shimmering beauty of shoegaze, the quintet leaned almost entirely into the latter sensibility for this effort. Enlisting producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen — best known for his work in the indie-pop sphere with M83, Wolf Alice and Paramore —the band toyed with the prettiest and brightest textures of their career thus far, while frontman George Clarke dropped his screams for an assortment of clean singing approaches.
"Great Mass of Color" is a sign of what's to come. With only a couple brief shrieks from Clarke toward the song's end, the majority of the track sounds like Radiohead by way of Slowdive. It's crisp, vivid, emotional and extremely well-done, but it's definitely not metal. Take a listen above via YouTube.
Infinite Granite is due out August 20th via Sargeant House. Check out the cover art and track listing below.
Infinite Granite track listing:
"Shellstar"
"In Blur"
"Great Mass of Color"
"Neptune Raining Diamonds"
"Lament for Wasps"
"Villain"
"The Gnashing"
"Other Language"
"Mombasa"
