Live Review: Deafheaven, Whitehorse, Thrall

Thrall open the evening in suitably nihilistic fashion, which earns them a handful of raised horns and a smattering of air drumming. Whitehorse prove memorable for nothing other than their hairy goliath frontman, his guttural roars morphing into pitchy, pained yelps. This doesn't do much to raise the standard of the uninspiring doom played by the rest of the band however.

Then the blood-red Corner Hotel curtains are drawn. What sounds like the strings from David Bowie's Life On Mars close dramatically as a lone, buzzing guitar note rings out. The curtains burst open and Deafheaven take to the stage. There's no studded leather or fog machines. No corpsepaint or occult imagery. Band co-founder Kerry McCoy is sporting a Drake t-shirt that reads “Nothing Was The Same”. A fittingly ironic choice since all the old black metal gimmicks are dead and buried tonight.

Opening with Dream House, Deafheaven elevate their sound beyond the studio. Where so often heavy music can get lost among a messy-riff salad when played live, all the elements here are clear and crisp. Daniel Tracy is a study in perpetual motion behind the drums hammering his cymbals into submission. McCoy's guitar work is littered with gentle moments of major chord optimism among the chugging, blackened riffs. It's not only throat shredding vocals that make George Clarke an outstanding frontman. The Deafheaven co-founder gyrates and skulks around constantly commanding the eye. He reaches out beyond the stage, held up by the crowd as he unleashes blood-curdling screams.

Deafheaven's set is essentially a play through of their latest album Sunbather and understandably so since that release turned the band into critical darlings and end-of-year list favourites. They close their main set with The Pelican Tree.

A thunderous encore of Unrequited from 2011's Roads To Judah perfectly demonstrates where Deafheaven sit in the black-metal landscape. The band acknowledges the past, both personally and of the genre, while shaping what's to come. Deafheaven may be a landmark act for a fringe genre. The future is in good hands here and tonight we witness a band ascending to the top of the class having already honed their craft.