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New Bermuda is a 2015 album released by ANTI- record label, the third full-length by Californian neo-black metal act Deafheaven.
Well, Deafheaven certainly is a complex case in the metal music scenario nowadays. Confusing a lot of people about what they really are, I think it is correct to say what album reviewer Anthony Fantano, from The Needle Drop, expressed about them, when he used the word “amalgamation” to describe Deafheaven, which is correct to say, given the fact that they certainly are a mixture of different musical genres, with an innovative and different proposal of artistry, at the level of their musical boundaries, creating a very peculiar style, that they certainly could call their own.
Being something like an atmospheric melodic black metal band with a shoegaze element, intertwined with acoustic passages, sometimes infused in an anachronistic post-rock element, Deafheaven is quite an exciting musical group, with a very different approach to the metal genre as a whole, although they certainly maintain almost intact the basic precepts of black metal, at the same time. At least, in the deepest core of their songs.
With only five songs (Brought to the Water, Luna, Baby Blue, Come Back, Gifts for the Earth), all of them eight to ten minutes long, these tracks in New Bermuda have conspicuous interludes, that not always feet perfectly into the heavy atmospheric element of the songs, becoming a little imbalanced and disparate in certain parts. For example, in the middle of the blast beats of the second track, you are enjoying the tough road of the heavy sound, when suddenly you are disturbed by a disrupted calmness, similar to a baby lullaby, that softens even more, as the song finishes. Although their experimental nature is more or less inspiring, they certainly have a problem to feet nicely the most incongruent parts of their music.
These five songs are constructed under the same basic musical elements, with little variations: a heavy sound typical of black metal, pervaded with the serenity of dark, melancholic and melodic passages, which sometimes have the distinction to flirt too dangerously with pop music. Lyrically, they don’t feet traditional black metal as well, since they don’t came near close to the topics familiar to the genre, such as Satanism, anti-religious sentiment, or paganism. This, in my opinion, is also another strong point in their behalf, since they are a band attached to a very particular sense of originality.
Finally, New Bermuda makes a fine album, although hardly could be considered a remarkable one. Nonetheless, it is attracting positive reviews, and certainly will help spread the notoriety the band had conquered in recent years. I give to it three stars and a half, since in my opinion, deserves no more than this, but certainly, not less.
Wagner
Well, Deafheaven certainly is a complex case in the metal music scenario nowadays. Confusing a lot of people about what they really are, I think it is correct to say what album reviewer Anthony Fantano, from The Needle Drop, expressed about them, when he used the word “amalgamation” to describe Deafheaven, which is correct to say, given the fact that they certainly are a mixture of different musical genres, with an innovative and different proposal of artistry, at the level of their musical boundaries, creating a very peculiar style, that they certainly could call their own.
Being something like an atmospheric melodic black metal band with a shoegaze element, intertwined with acoustic passages, sometimes infused in an anachronistic post-rock element, Deafheaven is quite an exciting musical group, with a very different approach to the metal genre as a whole, although they certainly maintain almost intact the basic precepts of black metal, at the same time. At least, in the deepest core of their songs.
With only five songs (Brought to the Water, Luna, Baby Blue, Come Back, Gifts for the Earth), all of them eight to ten minutes long, these tracks in New Bermuda have conspicuous interludes, that not always feet perfectly into the heavy atmospheric element of the songs, becoming a little imbalanced and disparate in certain parts. For example, in the middle of the blast beats of the second track, you are enjoying the tough road of the heavy sound, when suddenly you are disturbed by a disrupted calmness, similar to a baby lullaby, that softens even more, as the song finishes. Although their experimental nature is more or less inspiring, they certainly have a problem to feet nicely the most incongruent parts of their music.
These five songs are constructed under the same basic musical elements, with little variations: a heavy sound typical of black metal, pervaded with the serenity of dark, melancholic and melodic passages, which sometimes have the distinction to flirt too dangerously with pop music. Lyrically, they don’t feet traditional black metal as well, since they don’t came near close to the topics familiar to the genre, such as Satanism, anti-religious sentiment, or paganism. This, in my opinion, is also another strong point in their behalf, since they are a band attached to a very particular sense of originality.
Finally, New Bermuda makes a fine album, although hardly could be considered a remarkable one. Nonetheless, it is attracting positive reviews, and certainly will help spread the notoriety the band had conquered in recent years. I give to it three stars and a half, since in my opinion, deserves no more than this, but certainly, not less.
Wagner
