As much critical acclaim as they’ve won since the release of their breakthrough second album Sunbather, Deafheaven have also gotten a lot of crap tossed their way from the corpse-paint cognoscenti to whom the so-called “blackgaze” group are total posers and not at all “trve” or kvlt” enough. Deafheaven themselves — to their credit — don’t give a shit what the haters have to say, and as a result, their latest album, 2018’s stunning Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, is as stuffed with elements of Brit-pop, shoegaze, classic-rock, spoken word and other far-reaching genres as it is windswept tremolo riffage. All this makes the group’s new single, “Black Brick,” all the more shocking — surprise-released today, the Ordinary Corrupt Human Love B-side is the heaviest song Deafheaven have offered up to date, a seven-minute-plus grim-as-fuck subterranean crawl that’s black metal through and through. There’s nary a pretty Mogwai-esque digression to be found. Check “Black Brick” out below at high volume.
Deafheaven dropped the track ahead of their co-headlining North American tour with Baroness, which will be opened by like-minded metallic alchemists Zeal & Ardor (you know, the controversial band that has branded fans at their merch stand, and fuses black metal with slavery-era spiritual music). That trek kicks off March 8th in Houston, Texas, and culminates in an April 14th appearance at the Decibel Beer & Metal Fest in Philadelphia. After a short break, Deafheaven will hit the road again, this time with French progressive headbangers Gojira. You can see the band’s full upcoming itinerary here.
