Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love review

vikinghammer (52)in #review • 6 years ago

I hold a great love for Deafheaven, they write an extremely eclectic mix of black metal, shoegaze and just plain strange music, but they have something that keeps drawing me back in, album after album year after year. I think the thing that keeps me coming back is 'what is this new album going to be like?'

Each album they seem to have a very clear idea about what that album is going to be from start to finish and they execute that plan to a tee every time and they're all different. Sunbather for instance was a bright, colourful, airy, beachy themed album. New Bermuda was a lot darker, a lot of dark emotion came out of that album, Ordinary Corrupt Human Love is mid way between the two it has the bright colourful tracks but within the light a darkness swells. Kind of like winning a war... sure you won, but at what cost?

Deafheaven have always written music that is not only thought provoking but also has that groove that is impossible not to get hooked on, there's parts on every single one of their albums that I always have to skip back to to listen to again because it's just so god damn catchy. Ordinary Corrupt Human Love (OCHL) is absolutely chock full of those moments. I've listened to the album a few times now and I just can't get enough, Every track has something that makes me want to hear it again and again and again, ad nauseum. I've been through this album multiple times and I have to say it's probably my favourite album of theirs, it's as if this album is an amalgamation of all of their previous work, as if Roads to Judah, Sunbather and New Bermuda were all leading us here. A disasterpiece of immeasurable weight and value.

The musicianship of OCHL is amazing as always, the guitar work is strange, and yet familiar. Like something from your past that you remember fondly but when you remember correctly you realise that there was something a lot darker about that memory that you had previously repressed. The drums are amazing, I have always really loved the drum work on Deafheaven's work, the fills and rolls are fast and really give the tracks something more than the standard. Everything on this album is exactly as it should be, there's nothing that I could suggest need changing.

The tracks on OCHL are honestly some of the most interesting music I've heard in a very long time, I just want to close my eyes, lower my head and bang along. The albums starts with a very light and ambient piano part, which builds in to an incredible crescendo. The album continues in this fashion until it's conclusion, I really don't want to talk about the tracks to much as I think it's something that you should hear for yourselves because I really can't do them justice. Trust me when I say that there are things that are better experienced for yourselves.

Pros:

Incredible mix of everything that makes Deafheaven good
The highest highs, the lowest lows
This album is the most complete Deafheaven album they've released
I can't stop listening