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Dream House

Deafheaven

2013

Dream House

Release Date:  2013

By Pitchfork

Reviewed May 1, 2013

Deafheaven

Deafheaven are hardly the first band to blend shoegaze and black metal by understanding the two genres’ similarities: In both cases, the sound overwhelms and the listener submits. But while most of the San Francisco trio’s peers simply attempt to incinerate you where you stand, Deafheaven offer an actual travel itinerary on “Dream House,” the first single from their titanic Sunbather LP (out June 11 via Deathwish).

Much like Fuck Buttons, Deafheaven want to take you places when they fuse abrasive noise texture to the immediate pleasure of rhythm. Throughout “Dream House”’s nine minutes, you hear an intent to create constant movement and emotional fluidity. The addition of percussionist Daniel Tracy adds a newfound dexterity to their preferred blast beats, evoking both asteroid showers and tectonic movement. The guitars glow bright and brilliant red without charring into indistinct blackness, while brief passages of post-rock ambience add a glacial cool. The whole constitutes something vast and interplanetary. Shame that “awesome” now connotes bros and high-fives, because the literal definition is the best way to describe the incapacitating nature of “Dream House”: Something that inspires awe.

8:00 PM · May 1, 2013