Deafheaven at Lodge Room- A Perfect Marriage Of Time

Deafheaven astonishingly achieved fitting their enormous, atmospheric sound into the
intimate setting of The Lodge Room for 2 sold out nights, hosting different lineups and playing
different setlists for each of them. As heavy metal further evolves with its experimentation and
hardcore punk is currently seeing a revival in its popularity, artists that were early to adopt this
innovative nature, like Deafheaven, are now seeing the respect that they deserve for breaking
ground within these movements. With the environment of Night 2 shifting from their classic black
metal influenced material to the shoegaze and emo sounds of their newest album Infinite
Granite, Deafheaven showcased the importance for legendary bands within modern heavy
music scenes, to continue to explore and evolve as these genres do alongside them.
While Deafheaven is known for bringing a massive and theatrical presence to the
audience with their live performances, Spiritual Cramp creates a completely different
atmosphere with their upbeat, groovy sound that inspires pogo dancing in all directions within
any room that they play. Spiritual Cramp is one of the most distinctively unique bands to come
out of the punk genre in recent years, having the spirit of classic ‘77 punk rather than the
hardcore and emo influences that make up most of the scene nowadays. Vocalist Mike Bingham
sings with a bluesy, almost-slurred voice that bleeds personality into their rocksteady influenced
sound. One of the most signature aspects of Spiritual Cramp’s live presence is their emphasis
on tambourine player Max Wickham, as he almost takes the role of a second frontman by
jumping into the crowd to start mosh pits and hopping around stage like a madman- a true hype man. If you’re an old school punk fan looking for a modern band that evokes The Clash more than the wave of Cro Mags influenced hardcore that’s so common nowadays, then Spiritual Cramp is your band;and their experimental take on the genre could not have been a more suitable opener for
Deafheaven.

With Deafheaven’s newer shoegaze-focused material taking a much softer direction than
the black metal roots that they came from, it was unexpected when they kicked off the set with
possibly their most brutal song “Black Brick”. The performance was sure to appease any metal
purist in the room with its blastbeat build-ups and the menacing growls heard from frontman
George Clarke, as he powerfully commands the audience before him. The walls of ear shattering
noise continued as Deafheaven instantly broke into material from their most acclaimed
breakthrough album, Sunbather. Although the landscape of metal music as a whole has changed
drastically over the past decade, Sunbather still sounds as impactful and innovative in a live
setting as it did when it first came out in 2013. The title track completely engulfs you in its
enormous sound, feeling like a tidal wave of emotions and noise that you become lost in. The
contrast of the harsher and demonic screams with the atmospheric, blissful instrumentals
creates this blend of aggression and awe that Deafheaven is known for inspiring within the
listener, especially when experienced live in a setting as intimate as The Lodge Room.
While Deafheaven did play many of their heavier black metal classics, around half of the
set consisted of tracks from their newest album Infinite Granite. Frontman George Clarke takes
on a drastically different vocal style with their recent material, experimenting with more melodic
harmonies that resemble emo-shoegaze crossover groups like Turnover and Citizen. This does
feel like a natural progression for Deafheaven’s sound with their past history of blending these sounds with metal, but Clarke still makes this change of direction feel unexpected with his
dramatic stage presence that kept spirits high, even during these softer moments. It was
incredible to see drummer Daniel Tracy transition seamlessly between genres throughout the
night, especially with how he managed to bring the technical aspects of his metal style into the
brighter and more ethereal sounds. While the newer songs didn’t bring the rambunctious energy
to the room like their older material did, it was exciting to see the vision of Deafheaven evolve
and it was clear that the audience was encouraging of this growth as well.
The encore of Deafheaven’s set shifted back into their heavier material, and it was
apparent they were appreciative of their metalhead fans reacting well to the tracks from Infinite
Granite with how intense the closing to the evening was. Deafheaven returned to the stage
before breaking into “Brought to the Water”, the only track they played from their heaviest album
New Bermuda. The crowd was ecstatic with this change of atmosphere as the amount of fans
jumping off of the stage reached the highest point that it had all night. Deafheaven’s final song
of the set was “Dream House”, the iconic opener to Sunbather. Although movement in the room
was still at its peak, the song’s grandiose nature hypnotized everybody outside of the mosh pit
in a trance-like state with its enormous atmospheric sound. With “Dream House” being the first
song that many Deafheaven fans heard, its placement at the end of such an experimental set
felt emblematic of the extensive journey that they’ve brought their fanbase along for.
Heavy metal has always been notorious for its rigidly purist fanbase, quick to defend
their scene by attacking artists who do not fit the mold of what “true metal” is. While this
passionate attitude of preserving the roots of metal still prevails in certain circles, it’s becoming
near impossible to keep this exclusivity with how rapidly artists are gaining new audience
demographics of diverse tastes in the internet streaming era. While Deafheaven have always
been a prime example of this evolving landscape with their incorporation of post-hardcore and
shoegaze elements into their sound, this focus on crossing over into different scenes has now
become more of a standard than the outsider novelty it was once seen as. Deafheaven is no
longer limited to being seen as the metal band that your indie friend can appreciate, as they’ve
grown into the position of being heavy metal legends with how much influence their bold
experimentation has had on the genre as a whole. Even as they move further away from their
black metal roots with their exploration of other sounds, Deafheaven has become essential to
any conversation about the genre’s history and more importantly, its future.
Words: Danny Ryan
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