Sunbather 10 Years Later 

Album cover was supposed to be the colour you see when you close your eyes and the sun is shining on you. Super cool.

I was depressed and massively overweight in 2013. This album lifted me up so much. It got me out of the house and I would walk around my city for hours listening to it. It was so uplifting walk in the sun to this. I lost 150lbs, got a job, met a girl (showed her this album and took her to see them) had a kid and changed my life. This album is so important for me it’s crazy. I don’t know what I’d be like today without it. It was a kick up the ass I needed. Great stuff.

Huge DH fanboy here, loved this album, loved their later releases even more. They are one of the most enduring blackgaze acts out there and Sunbather still holds up 10 years later. They've influenced a lot of the music I listen to now.

Cool retrospective, Anthony! I didn't really get into this record when it first came out, and I still haven't given it a chance. I'm probably not going to. Thanks!

Dream House, Sunbather, and The Pecan Tree are all 10/10 tracks. Not many songs can take me to the place 'The Pecan Tree' does emotionally. Stunning album. EDIT: smh, forgot Vertigo (rightfully called out for it)

“I am my father’s son / I am no one / I cannot love / It’s in my blood” still knocks me on my ass every time I hear it

I always find that people underrate how important the Screamo influence was for their sound. The vocals and especially the drumming are something you get from a Portraits of Past or Orchid record more than a Burzum or Ulver. That's why most blackgaze acts that came after felt so drab, because most of them didn't reach the cathartic heights of a Dream House or Sunbather since they focused on the atmospheric elements from Post-Metal and Atmoblack. This catharsis is what made Deafheaven special in my opinion and was replicated very rarely. The closest I'd say would be those old envy records they definitely took influence from and the new Asunojokei release which gives the blackgaze formula a new shiny post-hc edge that feels like an even more accessible cathartic sound that resembles Deafheaven, which I both heavily recommend. When I saw Deafheaven live with Touche Amore and Portrayal of Guilt is when this all made more sense to me.

One of my favorite albums of all time. An experience that makes you feel every emotion in one.

I'm going to see Deafheaven perform this album in its entirety next week! Super excited 😁

This was actually the record that got me into black metal and I'm forever grateful for it. It stands to this day one of my favorite albums of all time.

I recall the vitriol within the metal community about the "hipster metal" of Deafheaven and Pantopticon. It's kind of funny to look back on, especially with Panopticon because Austin Lunn has become so respected within the genre.

Sunbather, Celestial Lineage, Marrow of the Spirit, Teethed Glory and Injury, Eccailes de Lune, Roads to the North. The post/atmospheric scene was thriving in the 2010s. Had so much fun discovering all of these amazing works back then ❤

Sunbather is honestly my favourite song of all time. I genuinely can't put into words how much i love it.

Somthing about the soundscape here, it never fails to make me choke up. Like a ballet preformed from pure spite. Burning sunset skies painted over a war. Anger and pain accentuated by beauty.

The transition from Irresistable to the title track is one of my favorites of all time. Ten years later, it still jumpscares me every time.

'I want to be there' by sadness is actually a pretty good black gaze album, and it's decently recent

This album was my introduction to everything metal. I still get watery eyes whenever I get to the 2nd half of Dream House.

Deafheaven is one of the most interesting bands in the genre over the last 10 years. I've seen them live a few times, and they are as ferocious as they are shoegazy. Love it and bring on the haters.

Recent blackgaze album Island by Asunojokei feels like the most recent big blackgaze record that feels like a great continuation of the kind of sound and atmosphere that Sunbather created. Also something I found listening to this record early this year, this album's really good at keeping your attention for something not looking for just a huge thing to sit down and chew on, there's this really good pacing where there are often really exciting short tracks to break up the longer more thought out tracks.

Here’s hoping that we might get one of these retrospectives for Like Clockwork as well!

I'll never forget thinking this was a pop album just because of the cover.

And shout out to the OG kvlt 'muricans (well, not the very first US black metal band, but the one that really kickstarted the scene): Weakling with their 2000 album Dead As Dreams. If you are new to the genre, I highly recommend this masterpiece (which you can find only on RU-vid due to how rare it is): 5 long PERFECT tracks with rawness, melodies, emotions and sonic exploration. You cannot talk about 2000s black metal without this seminal opus.

I had a very moving experience seeing Deafheaven live shortly after this release. So much raw energy braahhhh

Discovered this band a month ago and im in love (yes even infinite granite is amazing and boundary pushing for them)

Obsequiae is another incredible black metal band (imo) that I hardly ever hear anyone talking about. Not the same style as Deafheaven but they have a really cool sound, probably best described as “medieval black metal”. It’s really beautiful stuff and they have a lot of short acoustic instrumental interludes that add a lot to that vibe.

Play Irresistible from Sunbather over any part of this video, Anthony's voice fits perfectly for some reason

To anyone here that likes black metal (especially atmospheric BM), you have to see WITTR live. Still one of the best live acts I've ever seen

This album changed my life. Actually. One of the best metal albums EVER! I can’t say enough good things about it!

this album was a pivotal step for me in expanding my taste in heavy music beyond screamo / death metal. would have never gotten into panopticon or an autumn for crippled children had i not given this album a chance. edit: also The Pecan Tree is one of those songs that hits just right every time i go back to it.

Man, such a great album. I got it on vinyl just the other day. Also day one of asking to see Cal Chuchesta in corpse paint.

Asunojokei's Island is an album that wears its black-gaze influences such as Deafheaven on its sleeves. Incredibly heartfelt record that i think everyone should check out

This album speaks to me on a different level, both lyrically and musically. One of my favorites of all time. I also appreciate the departure from the typical black metal visual language.

This album hitting me at 27 was just perfect timing. One of the best summers of my life, and this was the soundtrack.

They still killing it

Heard Dreamhouse on the radio and I instantly believed I could like heavy music again. I never thought that was possible. It was an instant emotional reaction. It captured me as a listener.

Woah Anthony mentioned Lantlos, love that band

Seen em live several times in the last 10 years.

Not super recent (2018) but JORD by Denmark's MØL is one of my favourite blackgaze albums to come out, which is fairly late into the genre's boom. Might not have been the most groundbreaking, but the vocals were on another level. Amazing live band too, I think I've enjoyed their sets more than any Deafheaven set that I've seen!

Damn shawty, is it blissful?

Holy Fawn is the current top band in this sound that people really need to hear.

Never in a million years did I ever expect to hear Lantlos shouted out in a Fantano vid 😂

as a long time viewer of your content, i friggin love these 10 year anniversary retrospectives. please keep ‘em coming

Sun bat her? I hardly know her!

Never thought fantano would make a video of the effects of sun on the skin

It’s the greatest achievement in graphic design in the past 25 years. Good album, too. Irresistible is one of my favorite instrumentals.

One recent blackgaze/adjacent release that surprised me was Wounds of Recollection's "Warm Glow of the End of Everything." I wouldn't posit that it's as experimental as something like Liturgy, though the songwriting, production, and emotional draw are all there for me. Other contemporary works that have stuck with me are from Damián Antón Ojeda (Sadness, life, & many other aliases) - I don't know how he wields so much creative potential - and Tanpopo Crisis, whose album "Millennium Flower" holds a very special place in my heart.

N E E D L E D R P

Sunbather was my favorite black metal album in Highschool, it got me into bands like Dark Funeral, and I still listen to it every now and then because of how dynamic the sound is.

Saw them play this puppy at Roadburn festival (in its entirety) and it was AMAZING.

2nd half of Vertigo is still one of the greatest and most satisfying sections to hear in a song.

This album is - by far - the best suggestion Spotify has ever done to me. Started listening 3yrs ago and haven’t stopped.

This album is such an intense emotional experience and an overall work of beauty. I somewhat agree with RU-vidr Finn McKenty in that a lot of the hate the record got from purists might have been more due to its appeal to indie audiences, its presentation and its popularity and less due to the actual music. Which is a shame because the record got me into a lot of "real" oldschool black metal as well. 😕

This album got me into black metal *and* shoegaze. Pretty great.

This is the album that got me to appreciate screamed vocals. Before I just thought of it as mindless nonsense but Sunbather really opened me up to other ways a voice could be used to blend with the track it goes to.

DH played in Bogotá, Colombia, a few months ago, and I was impressed by how lovely George and Kerry were with the fans. Signed autographs and took selfies until the last person in the audience was satisfied. Great guys.

I STILL listen to Sunbather at least weekly.

It's a masterpiece

Just discovered this one a few months ago and I can’t get enough. Saw em live last month. 10/10 for me. So beautiful

10 years later, it's still making black metal fans mad

Never heard of it beyond seeing the album cover. Just gave it a play... Oh. I've found something new and cool sounding. Black Metal isn't my favorite genre, but this album / band weaves it on a different angle. ❤🤘

For anyone who craves the Sunbather sound, a really similar album is Melting Sun - Lantlos.

I remember walking into my regular record shop, seeing this album with a big sticker of positive reviews and picking it up. The clerk walks over to me and just said "buy it, you won't be disappointed". Driving home I had this album cranked in my car and it blew my mind. I wasn't much of an extreme metal fan and this album changed all of that for me. I love this record.

Seeing this video title made me feel very old. Thanks Anthony!

Really wish Anthony would talk about Metal more often, it’s a genre I always considered my favorite before I started getting into more niche stuff and I’d be really interested by learning the history of these more underground genres

This is the album that got me into metal as a whole. I remember I used to turn on the record and just sit outside and daydream in the summer. This album is incredibly nostalgic for me now. I think this album did for blackgaze for a brief moment what nevermind did for grunge. (Underground) labels were scrambling to sign the next deafheaven for a while and lots of other bands with the same sound started getting signed

Deafheaven got me into metal and are my all time favorite band

This commentary is SPF 50+.

One of the best albums of its kind

Just saw Def heaven live who was opening for Coheed and Cambria. They were so good

It’s still fire. Thanks to this album for getting me into blacker music and giving me some great memories and experience

this and Converge’s Jane Doe are my favorite albums ever

The clensing is still one of my favourite songs

Still an awesome album, easily the pinkest black metal album of all time 10/10

I wish you'd do one of these for Teethed Glory and Injury by Altar of Plagues, which came out March(?) Of 2013 🔥 that album changed my life fr, and I prefer it to Sunbather

Also ...Like Clockwork turns 10 years old this weekend. Guess it would be interesting to hear Anthony's thoughts on it too, given that it was in his top-3 albums of 2013

Maybe I’m being a little extreme here, but this album feels timeless. Every time I listen to it it hasn’t lost its luster at all.

It's funny that it's only been ten years because Sunbather was obviously an instant classic the moment it dropped and it feels like it's been around forever now.

People hating this record with such a fervent passion tells me it's more about themselves than the music. I just saw this album on tour the other night in SF. It was really really good. They hinted that their next album is going back to a heavier sound then played Luna last, so maybe there's more to come from this type of sound.

Please do a review of Wayfarer - a romamce with violence . It's on of the best American black metal album out there

I still like this album a lot and I’m glad you took the time to look back at it 10 years later. I learned about it initially through your original review. Thanks man.

I owe a lot to this album. It got me into other amazing albums like White Tomb, Two Hunters, and Marrow of the Spirit

Ordinary Corrupt Human Love is their real 10/10.

Still trips me out I discovered Canary Yellow from a Snapchat ad probably eight years ago. Only good use I got out of that app

I'm leaving my comfort space of Power Metal recently, getting into some BM, primarily from Curta'n Wall - Siege Ubsessed, which is such an excellent record.

To me Agalloch's three albums from the 00s is the gold standard of atmospheric black metal. I've looked far for albums that match it and the only one I've found is Sorni Nai by Kauan. Deafheaven is adjacent tho, and I think their 'live' album 10 years gone is a great overview of their sound, and a great COVID era recording.

I remember seeing the sunbather CD for the first time on the recommended plays shelf at my college radio station and thinking it was mislabeled as a metal album based on the cover. Just a singular experience hearing these songs for the first time

This is one of the most important records in my musical journey. Got me into extreme metal and on a path to more experimental stuff. Amazing record. If everything goes well, I'm going to see it performed live in its entirety this summer at arctangent, hype is real.

I want to dreeeeeeeeeaaam!!!!

This video was a pleasant surprise. Kind of fucks me up to think it's been 10 years since Sunbather came out. I think everything that you said was true, but the way I would articulate it is Deafheaven took the formula that was really introduced by Alcest and dialed it up to 11 for a primarily American audience. All kinds of musicians have said that Escailles de Lune is really what made them understand the possibilities for fusing other genres with black metal. That was doubtlessly true for the guys in Deafheaven too, they just happened to be the ones who really capitalized.

To be honest, in this video I initally expected Melon to be talking about people with leathery skin after a decade of sun tanning.

never my favorite music but love the break down and content.

Weirdly enough, your sunbather review got me into Envy and i've been a crazy huge fan since

Saw them live and love all their records. So great

Something that to this day pulls my heartstrings about this record is it’s downward trajectory into darker and darker scales and modes; dream house starts out as “happy” and major as can be (despite its heavy subject matter) and throughout the record the tones and vibes just get darker and darker. Violet and the first 7 or so minutes of the pecan tree are fucking dismal sounding. Then, out of nowhere, you get this return to a fucking pop progression during the climax of the pecan tree as George screams his fucking head off about his alcoholic father. It’s fucking beautiful. Happy birthday sunbather

Feels like 10 years to get through this album sheesh what a snooze

REAL MUSIC ENJOYERS: ultra emotional intensity gushing out from overwhelming well-designed chord progressions THOSE GENRE RULER: fake black metal

your Sunbather review was the first video I ever saw from you, so happy 10 years of me watching your stuff as well lol

Sunbather is stunning but the follow up ‘New Bermuda’ is my fave Deafheaven album and I love that they continue to evolve and upset people.

Basically, Deafheaven got famous through the iphone 5c keynote. Couldnt believe my eyes back then. Still love this band

To this day I can't tell you if I love this album because I actually love it or if I'm still coasting off the pure ecstasy generated by the rectal trauma of toxic metal dudes across the internet