Review Summary: In conclusion, I hate Infinite Granite but I also love Infinite Granite.
I have been following Deafheaven since their demo release because I was really into sadboy shoegaze like Whirr and Nothing at the turn of the aughts. These bands jumped onto the scene at the same time and while Whirr and Nothing seemed to be making soft shoegaze made by people that were—ahem, a bit rough around the edges (later controversy would prove this theory)—Deafheaven seemed to be the opposite. This was heavy, immense blackgaze made by people who by all account seemed like fairly normal dudes. No corpse paint bullshit, no strange TERF crusades, just good music that, sure, took itself a bit too seriously, but was good shit.
When
Sunbather hit, all y’all should’ve known
Infinite Granite would come out at some point in the future. Sure, it was still based in black metal but the gaze was massive. Deafheaven spent, what, the next decade getting less and less ‘kvlt bm’ and more basic bitch shoegaze. I knew it was coming, but I was absolutely dreading it. I know it’s a controversial take amongst the elitists that frequent sites such as this, but
Ordinary Corrupt Human Love was pretty fucking great even if even more basic gaze than they’ve ever done prior. I may be a slobbering Deafheaven fanboy, but once “Great Mass of Color” dropped I knew
Infinite Granite was going to suck. I go to Deafheaven for a cathartic crescendocore release, not to fall asleep high off of my ass in my recliner. That’s what Slowdive is for.
After a few spins, I still can’t figure out whether
Infinite Granite sucks or not. The first spin I struggled to pick out specific moments besides the euphorically beautiful first minute or so of “Shellstar,” the screams absolutely buried throughout and get lost in the guitar buzzsaw, or the abrupt ending of the “Mombasa.” George Clarke’s voice is not memorable whatsoever, but that’s part of the shoegaze equation. Kerry’s oft-ridiculed leads are strewn all over the album like cigarette butts on the floor of a smoke-filled venue after a shoegaze show. Combine that with Clarke’s ill-advised vibrato in songs like “Great Mass of Color” you just can’t help but chuckle that this is kind of overly dramatic. The band clearly wrote this to be an ‘important’ album; they’ve compared it to
Kid A, Clarke has discussed at length the ‘blue hour’ in which most of the album’s overwrought lyrics were written and it even seems to have a symbolic ‘death’ at the end of the album.
Suffice to say, there is plenty to hate on
Infinite Granite but I really don’t hate it, I think? After multiple spins, I keep coming back, addicted to more. I’ve seen a ton of people say that if it wasn’t Deafheaven this would never be so popular, and that’s not accurate whatsoever. This
sounds exactly like Deafheaven. “Villain” has all trademarks of a classic Deafheaven track, just with Clarke’s cringe vocals. But as cringy as the vocals are, what shoegaze band has good vocals? At Meldal-Johnson had the courtesy to bury the vocals in the mix. That’s not the only thing buried in the mix though, and I think that’s what keeps me coming back. There’s a ton to unpack. Meldal-Johnson did a fantastic job producing it, because on each listen, there’s something new to find. Did you notice the absolutely buried screams that literally melt into the buzzing guitar on “Lament for Wasps”? Took me three times to catch that. There are a ton of things like that you’ll catch throughout on relistens.
Not to say this album is great for multiple listens though. The more I am drawn back to it, the more I notice every song is the exact fucking same. Slow plucking guitar riffs lead into a buzzing verse, big loud choruses, back to verse, chorus followed by a slow bridge, followed by the lead deteriorating, then into a big huge crescendo with black metal howls absolutely buried in the mix. If you’ve heard “Great Mass of Color” you’ve heard the whole fucking album. But then I keep getting drawn back to the acoustic beginning and epic crescendo bliss of Mombasa knowing how repetitive and cliché it is. I proceed to think “man, this album is a letdown” and then immediately put it right back on.
It’s not
Kid A in the least bit. It’s an incredibly repetitive, derivative album by a band that’s way better than what’s included here. You can tell that most of these songs really need a varied structure and to not be reliant on remaining “rock” tunes because at their heart, most of these are stripped-back post-metal tunes. But I like the album. I’m just not sure why.
In conclusion, I hate
Infinite Granite but I also love
Infinite Granite. Deafheaven fanboys listen at your own peril.
