2015

These are desperate times.  If 2015 has taught us anything, it’s that we’re living in a world of extremes: ISIS runs rampant, Donald Trump runs his mouth, Paris burned, Volkswagen lied to us, Oregon and San Bernardino played out like nightmarish versions of GTA.  We lost Nimoy, Lee, King, and Rhodes.  Martin Shkreli happened. 

And yet, for all the fire and brimstone, a lot of good came out of 2015, reminding us of the enduring hope humanity operates on. Indeed, these are beautiful times: the COP 21 Summit might be what we were hoping the Kyoto Protocol would be, Bernie Sanders is hustling like Reasonable Doubt Era Jay-Z, the Surpremes gave us Obergefell v. Hodges and King v. Burwell.  The Dodgers didn’t win the World Series.  Episode VII didn’t suck.  Martin Shkreli didn’t enjoy that Wu-Tang album for very long. 

These are desperate times and yet they are beautiful. 

No record in 2015 captures that dichotomy better than Deafheaven’s New Bermuda. 

If 2013’s Sunbather was a testament to the power of dreams and the decay of memory, New Bermuda is the sobering wake up call that reality is truly schizophrenic.  Gone are the gauzy crescendos, the blissed-out elegance that earned Deafheaven the title of most beloved and most hated metal band.  New Bermuda is a brutal record, uncompromising.  Deafheaven created a monumental album that sports galloping thrash riffs, savage death howls, and a shimmering mix of post-rock-meets-Champagne Supernova tenderness.  Which is all to say that if people were pissed at Sunbather’s fearlessness, they’ll also be angry at New Bermuda’s refinement. 

At 5 tracks, New Bermuda overruns with standout moments.  "Brought To The Water” opens violently, churning with spidery vitriol before descending into drifting weightlessness.  Though Deafheaven are unfairly pigeonholed into the loud-soft-loud dynamic, the group ensures that each musical motif serves its purpose.  “Luna’s” mid point features sparkling arpeggios before inviting us to share in crushing stabs of white noise during its coda.  The variety on New Bermuda isn’t just for diversity's sake, but rather, and effective means for Deafheaven to explore how these opposing sounds coexist, if they coexist at all.  That’s really the secret to their sound—the tension at play between the group’s black metal fascinations and post-rock/shoegaze experimentation.  By the time listeners hit Kerry McCoy’s adrenaline fueled, sweep-picked solo on "Baby Blue,” it’s clear that the record’s brutalism remains, but the line between beauty and horror begins to blur. 

Singer George Clarke mentioned that parts of the record chronicle his move to L.A. after the band’s extensive tour on the Sunbather material.  Judging by Clarke’s album-long death rasp, the transition was laborious, the journey exhausting.  Clarke crystallizes his disillusionment and potential absolution for us on New Bermuda, effectively mixing torment with triumph.  On the album’s closing track “Gifts Of The Earth,” Clarke is able to find beauty in despair as he howls, “In the dark/My flesh to disintegration/Into consumption for the Earth,” reminding us of the cycles of time, and that even in death, there is life.  Transfiguration and disintegration aren’t mutually exclusive.  In the space of New Bermuda, they are one and the same. 

The best records invite you into a space outside of your everyday life, reflecting feelings and emotions back at you like a mirror.  For some, listening to their favorite album transports them back to a specific place or time in their life.  New Bermuda seems to have done that for its makers, but more importantly, it has created a space where the extremes of our world in are in constant conflict.  New Bermuda reveals the nuance of our cosmic tug of war, slowly, with each new listen. 

For me, New Bermuda embodies 2015 because it’s the year I truly started my life—and what a year it’s been.  There was a surplus of trials for me this year, both personally and professionally.  Yet in the midst of those obstacles, I find myself writing about this powerful piece of music while I wait for the love of my life to wake up so we can spend our first real Christmas together.  Again, these are desperate and beautiful times. 

To that end, New Bermuda will always always capture 2015 as a marvelous place and time, the collective roar of humanity trying to sort itself out.

In addition to New Bermuda, here are my other favorite releases from 2015:

• BADBADNOTGOOD & Ghostface Killah (Lex Records)
• Better Off | Milk (Equal Vision)
• The Black Dahlia Murder | Abysmal (Metal Blade)
• Chelsea Wolfe | Abyss (Sergeant House)
• Deafheaven | New Bermuda (ANTI-)
• Death Cab For Cutie | Kinstugi (Atlantic / Barsuk)
• Desaparecidos | Payola (Epitaph)
• Dr. Dre | Compton (Aftermath / Interscope)
• Drake | If You're Reading This You Know It's Too Late (Cash Money Records / Young Money / Universal)
• Drake & Future | What A Time To Be Alive (Young Money / Cash Money / Republic / Epic / A1 / Freebandz)
• Father John Misty | I Love You, Honeybear (Bella Union / Sub Pop)
• Fall Out Boy | American Beauty / American Psycho (Island / DCD2)
• Fidlar | Too (Mom + Pop / Wichita / Dine Alone)
• Foxing | Dealer (Triple Crown)
• Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes | Blossom (Kobalt Label Services)
• Future | DS2 (A1 / Freebandz / Epic)
• HEALTH | DEATH MAGIC (Loma Vista)
• Jamie xx | In Colour (Young Turks)
• Kendrick Lamar | To Pimp A Butterfly (Top Dawg / Aftermath / Interscope)
• Muse | Drones (Warner)
• Nate Ruess | Grand Romantic (Fueled By Ramen)
• No Devotion | Permanence (Collect Records)
• Pusha T | Darkest Before the Dawn: The Prelude (GOOD Music / Def Jam)
• Refused | Freedom (Epitaph)
• Ryan Adams | 1989 (PAX AM)
• Slayer | Repentless (Nuclear Blast)
• Sufjan Stevens | Carrie & Lowell (Asthmatic Kitty)
• Title Fight | Hyperview (ANTI-)
• The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die | Harmlessness (Epitaph)
• Vince Staples | Summertime '06 (ARTium / Blacksmith / Def Jam)

Originally published December 25, 2015 on Tumblr.