Deafheaven get "cvlt" on new single, 'Black Brick'

1 March 2019 | 1:27 pm | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

Deafheaven kick it old-school with new B-side, 'Black Brick'.

Deafheaven kick it old-school with new B-side, 'Black Brick'.



Still reeling from 2018's sublime fourth LP, 'Ordinary Corrupt Human Love', Deafheaven have dropped a new B-side this week. It just seems like yesterday that mesmerising tracks like the Chelsea Wolfe-featuring 'Night People' and the heart-rendering 'Canary Yellow' were washing over me, but now there's a heavy new tune from the American metallers out and about. In fact, if you caught them on their recent Australian headline run (they were as awesome as ever), you would've definitely heard 'Black Brick' get a mention.

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With "cvlt" vibes, death metal chugs, and a Slayer-esque/thrash metal mentality, 'Black Brick' is an old-school metal jam. It ain't so much blackgaze as this seven-minute rager is just pure black metal. Relentless blast beats from Daniel Tracy and rampaging riffs from partners-in-crime, Kerry McCoy and Shiv Mehra, punctuating the piece throughout. There's also a few solid, slamming stop-start choked cymbal hits that lend it a strong forward momentum and imbue it with a pulsating groove. All as vocalist George Clarke delivers one of the more fiendish vocal delivery he's tracked in ages, screaming of personal despondency and depression, all doused in waves of reverb.

'Black Brick' reminds me of the urgent pace to an older song like 'Brought To The Water'. Except this B-side to album #4 leaves melody off the table, instead running with a burning hard-on for vintage black metal, as well as 90's thrash and death metal. All up, it's not a bad track and it's wonderful seeing Deafheaven lean on their heavier extremes, forgoing their usual dreamy shoegaze parts for once.

'Black Brick' sure is an interesting change-up for Deafheaven at this point. And it's clear to see why this one didn't make it onto the 'Ordinary Corrupt...' track-listing. While I highly doubt that this will be the direction of new material moving forward for the group, it's a solid stop-gap between their last record and whatever comes next. So I welcome this new cut with open arms. Have a blackened look below: