★★★★★
When it came to what music has been produced, and released within the past year, there is one album that stands out more than the rest. Hailing from San Francisco, Deafheaven's Sunbather embodies just about every emotion in the musical spectrum with their ability to bridge the gap between doom and beauty. The band's sop#re album is a dream combination of black metal, post rock, and shoegaze...
- bigsmilemagazine.com
2014-02-20
★★★★★
The albums that creep up and surprise - no, startle - you are always the most satisfying. Deafheaven's Sunbather is, without doubt, this year's example.
It's fair to say that black metal doesn't usually catch the consciousness of the wider music community. Yet the way Deafheaven fuse it along with post-rock and shoegaze meant that Sunbather was always likely to do quite well...
- www.musicomh.com
2013-12-02
★★★★★
Sunbather is a record that, maybe more than most, captures what it feels like to be young. Not young in the sense of being naïve, hopeful, and innocent, but young in the moments right after that. The youth that Deafheaven capture on their sophomore release seems, in almost every element, to be of that fleeting period when one still feels like wonder and importance saturates every aspect of life but that the onset of adulthood is close enough that he or she can see challenges, frustration, and...
- www.musicvice.com
2013-08-22
★★★★★
It sounds like the wind or a wave, a lonely breath from the lips of a non-existent god, exhaled over a lost and distant land coming to crash upon a beautiful forgotten shore. It aches. It bleeds. As the time passes, the breeze turns into a fluttering whisper, gently beckoning to follow. ? Even the wind itself is not sure the exact path that lays before it, but it knows where it wants to be. Somewhere close but impossibly far away...
- www.sputnikmusic.com
2013-08-14
★★★★★
Deafheaven make shoegazer metal that does its dark work in the background but refuses to stay in one place. Here, feedback thickens to thunderous crescendos while a cloud cover of despondent growls rains down. Snatches of minimalist stillness, acoustic strumming and spoken word vary the volume. But the mood stays ominous, even as sonic details thrill headphone-equipped headbangers.
- www.rollingstone.com
2013-08-13
★★★★★
Let me begin by saying one thing that essentially summarizes the entirety of the review that is being laid out here: Deafheaven have created something special here that deserves recognition.Sunbather is a refreshing take on black metal that caught me completely off guard. On a friend's recommendation I sat down and listened to it, and what emerged from that experience was one of those rare situations that a music enthusiast won't soon forget...
- www.musicreview.co.za
2013-07-25
★★★★★
Deafheaven
Sunbather
[Deathwish; 2013]
By Zachary Corsa ; June 27, 2013
Purchase at: Insound (Vinyl) | Amazon (MP3 & CD) | iTunes | MOG
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Oh, black metal. That great dividing line that separates so many of us music lovers like a jagged mountain range. For some, it's a deeply spiritual experience, akin to walking through fire unscathed...
- beatsperminute.com
2013-06-28
★★★★★
When I was in my early teens, I used to skateboard a lot and listen what I considered to be "punk" music. My idea of what was proper "punk" music consisted of was produced in the mid-90s and featured dudes donning chunky skateboard shoes, shorts, and ringer t-shirts. Most importantly (in typical, timeless teenager fashion), I'd have a preemptive "Fuck you" loaded in the chamber if anyone were to dare insinuate any flaws in this formula of perceived authenticity...
- www.syffal.com
2013-06-26
★★★★★
Album two from this 2010-formed San Fran crew, inked to Jacob Bannon's Deathwish imprint, has already set itself ahead of the 2013 competition. At the time of writing, 'Sunbather' has a Metacritic average score of 97 out of 100. If the year ended, now, it'd be the review-aggregator's very best album of 2013, regardless of genre, several places ahead of celebrated records from The National, Daft Punk and Boards Of Canada...
- www.clashmusic.com
2013-06-25