TRACK REVIEW- Brought to the Water by Deafheaven

Ah Deafheaven, arguably one of my favorite acts out there right now. Following them since Sunbather, and discovering Roads to Judah and their demo shortly after that, I'd say that I've gotten myself fairly familiar with their material. Loved by many for their normalizing of black metal by adding to it elements of post rock, shoe gaze and other genres completely outside the realm of metal. It showed by Sunbather becoming an album of the year for many including myself, and earning Deafheaven a spot of fame. They're also hated by some for the same reasons, so called "elitists and purists" who would rather see grainy basement recordings of people screaming about woods and forests than something new.
  Recently however, Deafheaven released Brought to the Water, a track off of their upcoming(though already streamed through NPR) release entitled New Bermuda. At first I was stoked to hear that they were creating new material, but upon listening to it I was enamored with how it sounded. Dirtier without any loss of technical skill. It's almost like the band themselves took offense to being called "not black metal"
Regardless of fanbase or purist hate, this band has done something amazing to their sound that I would say surpasses Sunbather as a record in some aspects. Production wise this record is dirtier, yet has its incredibly clean parts where its more post rock than anything else. And the fact that it goes from blast beats to ambient tremolo picking is something phenomenal. The riffs are absolutely stunning and flow well through the whole track. The drums are exceptional, as always on Deafheaven tracks and overall everything just sounds great.
 Vocally, the new style that George(vocals) is taking is I think being well received by fans, going based upon what I've heard from friends who are fans as well as fans on the internet. It's far more "black metal" than previously heard on Sunbather or Roads or even their demo for that matter. But I think it fits very well with the new turn that this record is taking and I personally really dig how the vocals are more annunciatied now and more audible in my opinion than they were on Sunbather.

Overall, this track is phenomenal, and I'd feel bad giving it anything less than a 9/10, and I can't to be able to fully review the record upon it's full release.

9/10

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