adg211288 US band Deafheaven are one of those artists who, despite earning themselves a dedicated following, have also attracted some pretty harsh criticisms from a large percentage of fans of the genre of music that they belong to, as ironic as that sounds. In this case it's black metal and it's not actually as shocking as it may seem, as these so called blackgaze acts do tend to make some pretty radical departures from black metal's usual standards. However with their third album New Bermuda (2015) Deafheaven sound as if they're ready to escape from the shadow of blackgaze and really get their metal on.

I haven't actually heard either of the previous Deafheaven albums. Descriptions of their music didn't really make them sound like a band I would be interested in. I'll probably have to change that now of course, as New Bermuda is a damn good atmospheric black metal record and I'm definitely interested to hear the group's more blackgaze based roots. That's right, New Bermuda isn't really a blackgaze album. It has a strong blackgaze presence on it though, but it's more for flavour here. Deafheaven still challenge the conventions of the genre with this album; they even have a song with the name Baby Blue which really doesn't sound very black metal to me. Which I personally don't give a damn about, but if you're that concerned about damaging your black metal credentials you'll probably be giving New Bermuda a wide birth, which frankly will be your loss.

New Bermuda is a rather pristine sounding kind of black metal (as odd as such a description may sound) with a lot of clean musical sections from both the guitars and use of piano such as in the last track Gifts for the Earth, which of course will turn off anyone who insists on this kind of music being as lo-fi and grim as possible. The vocals by George Clarke tend to be quite high screams which fit in will with the music, though are admittedly difficult to follow if you're at all interested in following the lyrics. The track list, just five long, may make it seem as if New Bermuda is a very short album but with each track passing the eight minute mark the album ends up at a respectable 46:35 minutes long and it turns out to be an ideal sort of length that keeps making me want to come back to the album for another listen.

This is not an album for traditionalist black metal fans. But if you're like me and open to (or outright eager for) the less traditional approaches that modern black metal bands like Deafheaven take on then New Bermuda is a highly recommendable release.