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Critic Reviews
100
Many bands go through their entire career without making an album as well crafted, fully realized, and downright gorgeous as Sunbather, and somehow, Deafheaven have managed to nail it on their second outing, with an album that seems to get bigger and more affective with each listen.
12y
100
The record alchemizes shoegaze's hazy wall of distortion and black metal's quick-fire drumming and tormented, raspy howling.
10y
100
What’s undeniable is that moments from Sunbather will resonate long after the pointless babble has died down, proving that sometimes the greatest beauty can only be found in the face of chaos.
12y
100
Ultimately, Deafheaven's songwriting talents have improved in a big way here; each track more consciously built around the bigger picture, making for a consistently gripping, emotionally cleansing whole.
12y
92
Sunbather is a future classic, no matter where you pigeonhole it, and that’s the mark of a true sonic masterpiece. Black metal, not black metal, just call it what it is: perfect.
12y
90
There’s something deeply relevant about Sunbather, as if it touches a sort of inner anxiety and insecurity that currently lingers in many of us.
12y
90
Sunbather is something to behold, and with the average vocal track averaging well over 10 minutes in length, the majority of the album's running time is well spent.
8y
90
Deafheaven’s new full length and follow-up to 2011’s Roads to Judah, is a near masterpiece. We can say that. It is an incredible piece of work.
9y
90
It’s a bit bloody brilliant. A record everyone with half an experimental ear should experience, even if they run from it, screaming.
11y
90
The result is a perfectly flowing album that is, at times, as calming as it is chaotic.
12y
90
This quest for perfection has yielded the most emotive and powerful music Deafheaven have yet written. Their sound is much more expansive than before, and even more varied.
12y
90
Sunbather is a developed, mature, and, above all, an original statement that truly lives up to the unbelievable amount of hype it has earned.
12y
90
Sunbather is an absolutely massive, all-encompassing experience, one that’s both frighteningly intense and indescribably beautiful – often simultaneously.
12y
90
Deafheaven’s audacity and artistry are hard to deny, which is but one of many reasons why Sunbather is an essential listen, and one of 2013’s boldest works of art.
12y
89
It has the ability to capture the attention of people who don't normally listen to heavy music. It's also one of the most successful examples of a band using black metal as a starting point and ending up somewhere else entirely.
12y
85
Sunbather sees Deafheaven finding a way to make a personal, emotional statement without resorting to pure aggression and instead by finding places for insecurity within confidence, for instrumental complexity within the relentlessly heavy, and for the grey areas within black metal.
5y
80
Sunbather comes laced with post-rock grace and a pop-like accessibility. Nor are those elements sequestered from the black-metal bombardment: They are part of it, or, depending upon your perspective, it is part of them.
12y
80
West Coast metal outfit Deafheaven has really improved their sound on this latest outing of theirs, delivering sharper, more triumphant compositions through a barrage of black metal-style instrumentation.
8y
80
A superb and moving collection of tracks, pure and simple.
7y
80
It's not for the light-hearted, but Deafheaven have delivered a deranged, damaged, majestic treat here.
Print Only
3y
80
Ostensibly some sort of black metal band or post black metal band or some sort of ambient post shoegaze band or a blackgaze band or whatever- this is the sound of barriers being smashed.
3y
76
Deafheaven’s second outing is wondrous celebration of boundless ambition and pure artistic vision.
13y
60
Deafheaven make shoegazer metal that does its dark work in the background but refuses to stay in one place.
11y
how can it be metal.............. if the cover is pink!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it's called """""""black"""" metal for a reason... not PINK metal... everyone knows the true PINK metal already belongs to Boris. ... read more
If the world was coming to an end, this is the record I would listen to. I would walk out of my house put "Sunbather" on my iPod and I would feel at peace. One final deafening roar before an eternity of silence.
Sunbather is the epitome of what an album is. It is the journey of a thousand sounds clashing and dancing with one another in a cohesive experience that can not be understood unless pieced together in the specific sequence it was designed for.
It also changed my life.
To this day, despite having heard hundreds, if not thousands of albums, nothing has actually visibly altered the way I live, at least not until this album. This was different. This was special. And in order to understand ... read more
Guys yesterday I hit like 3 blinkers of a THC-P cart and had ego death and in the middle of it I was listening to this album and like I actually started imagining the most wild powerful ridiculous elemental dragons flying around my room while I was listening to this album and it was genuinely the coolest shit ever 10/10 no notes
Favorite track: Dream House
Least favorite track: None
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patton, HonzaH, thisisabtlgrnd, mikeyestes, philthy, erik, PureRage, d_ism, OPENblinds, dickieblueleaf, gm1806Become a Subscriber
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Track List
| 1 | Dream House 9:14 | 96 |
| 2 | Irresistible 3:13 | 89 |
| 3 | Sunbather 10:16 | 95 |
| 4 | Please Remember 6:26 | 85 |
| 5 | Vertigo 14:37 | 93 |
| 6 | Windows 4:42 | 82 |
| 7 | The Pecan Tree 11:26 | 94 |
Total Length: 59 minutes
Year End Lists
| #2 | / | Stereogum |
| #3 | / | A.V. Club |
| #3 | / | Sputnikmusic |
| #5 | / | Crack Magazine |
| #6 | / | Pitchfork |
| #6 | / | The 405 |
| #8 | / | Cokemachineglow |
| #11 | / | The Daily Beast |
| #16 | / | Amazon |
| #20 | / | Consequence of Sound |
| #22 | / | Spin |
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