Deafheaven

Formed in San Francisco in 2010, American band Deafheaven's black metal has its roots in alternative rock, particularly shogaze and post-rock. Originally made up of vocalist George Clarke and guitarist Kerry McCoy, the duo transformed into a quintet and produced a demo that attracted the attention of Converge leader and Deathwish Inc. label founder Jacob Bannon. After a single album released on that label, Roads to Judah (2011), the two founding members parted company with the other three musicians and recruited drummer Daniel Tracy for the critically acclaimed album Sunbather (2013), then guitarist Shiv Mehra and bassist Stephen Clark for the tour that followed. In 2015, Deafheaven signed with label Anti- for their third album New Bermuda, ranked #16 on the Top Rock Albums chart and #63 on the Billboard 200. Two years later and after another international tour, the quintet worked with the same producer Jack Shirley and a new bassist, Chris Johnson, for the 2018 album Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, inspired by Graham Greene's novel The End of an Affair. Evolving in a genre later referred to as blackgaze, Deafheaven returned in 2021 with the album Infinite Granite and headlined the Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands. Deafheaven signed to Roadrunner Records and recorded Lonely People with Power (2025), which, like its predecessor, was produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen in Hollywood, with contributions from Jae Matthews and Interpol singer Paul Banks.