SARGENT HOUSE

“Deafheaven in a live setting is a goddamn powerhouse. Their 2010 demo mixed post-rock, black metal, and melodic hardcore/screamo leanings in a unique mix that left my ears itching for more, and the debut full-length Roads to Judah has been in near-constant rotation since I picked it up on vinyl a few months back, but nothing could have prepared me for the intensely cathartic experience of their live performance. They’re a very young band, only forming a couple years back in 2010, and their youthful energy is an absolute joy to watch. You can see that their singer puts his heart into every single word he belts out, and each of the accompanying musicians plays in an amazingly tight synergy that one would expect to see from veterans of countless tours and albums – to see such a young group of musicians performing flawlessly with an unbridled enthusiasm was a complete surprise and an absolute treat. The crowd reacted with unchecked exc in turn, Deafheaven’s energy moving them emotionally in one of the best symbiotic relationships between band and audience that I’d seen in a long time. And when their singer gave his thanks to the audience at the close of their set, you could tell he meant it dearly.” Metal Blast - March 31, 2012 - Public Assembly, Brooklyn NY

“Totally stealing the show was San Francisco’s Deafheaven, whose sound scales the wuthering heights of gale-force post-metal and screamo. They definitely drop a big slab of pure intensity but have the agility, touch and range of post-rockers. Violently forlorn in a way that’s sublime, their sonically heavy but unquestionably beautiful music is like a soundtrack for the most epic and severe extremes of the Earth. Live, they come with a force-of-nature velocity that feels like a tornado touching down on the roof above you. And for a guy who looks kinda like a stylishly brooding member of Interpol,singer George Clarke sure can shred a throat properly”. - Orlando Weekly

“The night continued with the San Francisco metal collective, Deafheaven. Playing mostly from the Roads to Judah album, the band managed to summon a strong reaction in the crowd that night. Clarke was the driving force behind this reaction, as his theatrical expressions were akin to the kind of intensity one displays at fisticuffs. His stance was often crouched, as if he was ready to pounce on the audience and his leer made him look possessed. Guitarist Kerry McCoy—and fellow original member alongside Clarke—-writhed around with the rest of the band during some of the speedy moments but swayed along during the more droning post-rock lulls.

It took a minute for the crowd to get in the mood, but eventually everyone was headbanging and giving their best grim face at the front of the stage, and a few people had a good time screaming along with Clarke to, “Don’t raise a toast to your slaving bloodline now!” - The Dropp / review of March 22, 2012 at Will’s Pub.

” Deafheaven, I’ve been told, are a must-see. I’m not the most well-versed in their material, but their debut album Roads to Judah is really something special. They’re a band that’s really doing a lot for the United States Black Metal scene, and seemingly growing bigger by the day. I was unsure of what to expect from them live, as I have never attended a black metal show in person before, but Deafheaven delivered. As great as Roads to Judah sounds on record, its material comes to life when the band are performing it in front of you. The sound of lush tremolo picking and rushing blast beats is quite an enveloping sound, and the emotional aspects of the compositions really make sense and connect live. What really sells their show though is front man George Clarke, whose intense delivery is a sight to behold. Angst seemed to pour from his being (in the best way), and he clearly connects with the music on an emotional and perhaps a spiritual level. It was questioned whether or not Clarke was on any psychedelics, and given the way he moved around on the stage and performed, it wouldn’t surprise me either way. Luckily, performance enhancing drugs aren’t really all that frowned upon during metal shows, if that was the case. Deafheaven are definitely a band to be experienced, and are a phenomenal live act”. - The Hideaway- Johnson City, TN on March 24, 2012 /Review by Alkahest / Heavy Blog Is Heavy

“Deafheaven was up next and the crowd for these guys was even much different from the crowd for Alcest, as it seemed more like a hardcore show with out the windmilling and kickboxing dances.Deafheaven with out a doubt stole the show. They had an intensity to them that could not be denied. Front-man George Clarke’s stage presence makes up for his one dimensional vocal attack. The playing was spot on with a shimmer slaps you and then shakes you while the cathartic exorcism explodes into the ether on waves of delay and distortion. Either I’m going deaf or I expected them to be louder.” - Atlanta on March 23, 2012 Review by Wil Cipher for Hiplanta

“So in 2011 the indie music community got really excited about black metal. There were think pieces, and much-ballyhooed buzz bands, and the inevitable hey-we-were-here-first backlash from the tr00 kvlt fans. It was fun, for a while, to see this potent subgenre, long relegated to the margins of musical discussion, getting so much ink. But hipsters, it seems, can find a way to make anything annoying, and we’re nearing that threshold for black metal – or at least for conversations about it.

Fortunately, there really are a lot of good bands inspiring all this talk. Two of them played at the Big Top on Tuesday: Alcest, a French group that’s been melding black metal with the dreamy sounds of shoegaze for years; and Deafheaven, a band that’s so damn hot right now that NPR and Esquire – fucking Esquire* – dubbed them among the best acts at SXSW in Austin last week.

..Deafheaven also traffic in a melodic, shoegazing style of black metal, but theirs is most effective when steamrolling at full blast. Drummer Korey Sorenson propelled the band; he peppered his blast beats with long, tumbling fills, and was a joy to watch. The guitarists used less of their fretboards than Alcest – not a ton of variety here – favoring a unified, jackhammering, wall of noise as they pounded through cuts from 2011’s Roads to Judah. Perhaps it was the SXSW effect; they sounded like a band that’d just played a lot of shows and was in the zone.

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LE BUTCHERETTES - Hard Rock Live - Orlando, FL * May 21, 2011

Unadvertised, and so unexpected by most every attendee who had piled in to the Hard Rock Live to see Deftones and their billed opener, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Le Butcherettes’ appearance on the stage come show time was not immediately welcomed by the mostly macho audience. When a petite girl wearing an overcoat quietly took her place behind a keyboard and eased her band into a pretty melody, mild heckling erupted over my shoulder.

“What is this?! Fucking Lady Gaga?!” called out a bear of a man who didn’t seem to know what Lady Gaga looks or sounds like at all because Le Butcherettes, and front woman Teri Gender Bender, are pretty far from it.

After a couple of unassuming songs sung in the dark, the overcoat came off to reveal a blood-stained apron worn atop a girly, polka-dotted dress. A guitar was grabbed, and a look of sweet naiveté was replaced by a mischievous glare. Teri Gender Bender unleashed the animal within, and Le Butcherettes metamorphosed into a she-beast worthy of all of the Riot Grrrl comparisons you can think of.

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Tera Melos performing the songs Kelly, Skywatch & Aped from the album Patagonian Rats. We’ve got this whole live show recorded and will be releasing them a song at a time. It was filmed while on their most recent tour with Marnie Stern at the Backbooth in Orlando, Florida on Feb 27, 2011. Thanks to Erick R. Wilczynski and his gang for shooting it and cutting it for us.