Deafheaven – ‘Lonely People With Power’ [Album Review]

Twelve years ago, San Francisco’s Deafheaven unleashed one of the most genre-evolving albums of its time in Sunbather. Whilst many would yearn for them to take Sunbather’s blueprint and remake the same record for the next 20 years, this isn’t the band to request a copy and paste from. In 2021, they gave us Infinite Granite a triumphant if not slightly divisive return, which saw them delve into the much lighter end of the now publicly coined ‘Blackgaze.’ The biggest question was whether Infinite Granite was a dalliance into progressing as artists or if this much lighter sound was the way forward for them now.

Enter 2025’s Lonely People With Power, Deafheaven’s most complete and rounded record to date. Pulling in components from all that came before it, this is Deafheaven showing that they are the standard and progression of the genre is on their terms. What they do better than most on this record is take you into their world, constructing and feeding you challenging atmospheres whilst giving you the space to explore.

Musically, this album is formed of layers of harsh instrumental landscapes, taking you through moments of grief, panic and hopelessness whilst somehow pulling you up and putting you on their shoulders to watch the sun set when the time is right. The caustic, jarring vocals of George Clarke feel more endearing than frightening, and those lighter vocals we were introduced to on Infinite Granite now add a perfect touch of familiarity and identity to this record.

“Magnolia” was one of the two singles released prior to the album and was clearly put out into the world as a flag of intention for what was to follow. Its pace and ferocity were enough to get fans excited and grab the interest of bystanders. “Body Behaviour” captures the nostalgic gazey sound of Deafheaven albums past with its fast, driven pace, frosty vocals and atmospheric guitar sounds. Whilst “Incidental II” shows off the band’s ability to experiment with tortured tones and a softer emersion. The melodic, lush guitar tones that made up the body of Infinite Granite subtly find their way into tracks such as “Garden Route” and “Heathen,” although now married with the more “traditional” Deafheaven vocals, it feels like the characters of two stories meeting for the first time. This isn’t an album to pick out individual tracks for a playlist; this is a body of work that unfolds and complements all around it. As dark and claustrophobic as it is vast other worldly, it strangles you with one hand whilst rubbing your back with the other.

Just as Sunbather closed out with “The Pecan Tree,” an 11-minute pick you back up and thanks for coming, Lonely People With Power closes out with “The Marvellous Orange Tree,” a beautifully constructed baptism of everything Deafheaven have to give. The guitars hold you up on the edge of the world and bring you crashing back down like a dam of noise breaking open and pouring out, whilst the full range of brutal and beautiful vocals are married together for the final flight on this exhilarating journey.

Deafheaven will always be shadowed by the legacy of Sunbather, it’s often hard for people to separate what their favourite album from a band is from anything that comes after it, especially if that album resets the status quo. In my opinion, this album is Deafheaven’s biggest success, it’s another evolution of a genre that they helped pioneer, and for me, it is their greatest album to date. In a world of demand and supply from many bands, Deafheaven keep us all marching to the beat of their drum. The unknown of the future remains exciting.

Lonely People With Power Track Listing:

1. Incidental I
2. Doberman
3. Magnolia
4. The Garden Route
5. Heathen
6. Amethyst
7. Incidental II (featuring Jae Matthews)
8. Revelator
9. Body Behavior
10. Incidental III (featuring Paul Banks)
11. Winona
12. The Marvelous Orange Tree

Run Time: 62:08
Release Date: March 28, 2025
Record Label: Roadrunner Records