Deafheaven announced that they have a new album on the way called Infinite Granite, which they plan to release through Sargent House on August 20, 2021. The group shared the first single from the record, called “Great Mass of Color.”
The new song is the band’s furthest foray into dream-pop yet, somewhat betraying their metal roots for something more ethereal, until the recording’s explosive finale, which brings it back to their signature style, returning to blackened vocals. While the uplifting indie guitar chords and shoegaze-like wash of noise has always been a part of their work, “Great Mass of Color” is certainly on the indie side of the bridge they walk between genres.
Vocalist George Clarke’s lyrics point to a feeling of dissociation from his body and an alienation from love. He sings about “Living trapped inside this body/Soft, haunted, waiting, wanting/Measured change evades real healing/Taking love with little reason.” It leads up to the screamed final line, “You are the sea and nobody owns you.”
Infinite Granite will reportedly be mostly lacking in black-metal howls, but is said to make up for it with Clarke’s drive to fully explore his vocal range, backed by more atmospheric instrumentals than ever before, expanded by synthwork from Shiv Mehra. A press release calls it “Deafheaven’s most goosebump-inducing album to date.”
The album was produced by the legendary Justin Meldal-Johnsen, who is best known for producing many of Beck’s albums, as well as playing as the bassist in Beck’s band. He has also spent a lot of time producing and working on music for St. Vincent, Nine Inch Nails, M83, Paramore, Metric, Air and many more. Other artists he’s recorded include Garbage, The Mars Volta, Frank Ocean, Dixie Chicks, Tori Amos, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Goldfrapp and Blood Orange, among others.
It was recorded by Deafheaven’s usual engineer, Jack Shirley, at his Atomic Garden East studio in Oakland, CA. The highly-awarded mixing guru Darrell Thorp provided some additional engineering and mixing.
Infinite Granite will be the follow-up to their 2018 record Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, which dealt with some of the themes present on “Great Mass of Color,” but largely stuck to blackened vocals. Deafheaven also released live album in 2020 titled 10 Years Gone, which featured tracks from across their entire career since forming in 2010, and closed with their iconic 2013 Sunbather opener “Dream House,” which remains their most popular song to date.
Infinite Granite Tracklist:
1. Shellstar
2. In Blur
3. Great Mass of Color
4. Neptune Raining Diamonds
5. Lament for Wasps
6. Villain
7. The Gnashing
8. Other Language
9. Mombasa
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