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.

“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

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)

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!

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

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 😁

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.

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 ❤

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

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

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.

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 really love Ordinary Corrupt Human Love.

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

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.

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

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.

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

I would highly recommend Agalloch’s Ashes Against the Grain. The layered guitar intro always pulls me into the apocalyptic album.

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.

The biggest reason this album was so successful (besides the songs being good) is because of the dichotomy between the heaviness of the genre and the aesthetic of the album. Pink cover, called Sunbather, it's a black metal album wrapped in Beach House, tropical, dream pop packaging. This had never been done.

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

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

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

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 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.

Sunbather does so many things so well all at once, it really was a cool moment in time to experience it.

Woah Anthony mentioned Lantlos, love that band

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.

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

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

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.

They still killing it

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.

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

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

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 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.

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

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!

Saw them live and love all their records. So great

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.

Was literally listening to this album again today, on vinyl for the first time, not even realizing it was the 10 year anniversary of its release. Holds up to this day as one of my favorite albums, and the one that made me understand the appeal of extreme metal.

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

Seen em live several times in the last 10 years.

I remember seeing them live playing this album in its entirety and it was incredible. I’ve never seen them live sense because it’s never going to top that experience with what they’ve been doing lately.

Just an incredible album that most definitely deserves a retrospective review. Nice one Anthony.

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

Seeing Deafheaven perform SUNBATHER in full at Arctangent in a couple of months, so excited! Amazing festival.

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!

This is an introduction for me... I've never even knew this existed... amazing album. thankyou

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 😂

bruh thats crazy i saw deafheaven in sydney last night, great show and a great band!

saw them live just a couple months ago. took a 6 hour bus to another state at dawn and took another one back home at night right after the show lol. best gig ever. they put up one hell of a show and were super friendly afterwards. sadly wasnt one of the live Sunbather shows theyve been doing but the set was pretty great. I love small venue shows.

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.

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

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

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

Utterly breathtaking record. The wall of sound is just next level and it’s elevated with such passionate vocals. I know it’s popular to hate Deafheaven but Dream House is one of my all time favourite songs, just goosebump inducing.

I only recently discovered them and I’ve completely fell in love with it. I’ve played “Sunbather” repeatedly the past couple of months

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.

It's the record that got me into black metal/heavy music in general, will forever remain in my top 5, such a masterpiece

I'm seeing them next week in Auckland and I'm so pumped

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.

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

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

Never listened but plan to. The cover is so beautiful and such a vibe. For this to be black metal (which is seen as a dark genre) but have a cover so bright shows genius duality. Art

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

My friend told me about it just before a show so I got to to see them that tour as we're both getting in to it.

So excited to see this performed at ArcTanGent this year! Also, shout out to whoever invented the 'Piss Yellow' vinyl variant

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

saw this album played in full on their 10 year tour a few days ago. Just as wonderful as the first time I listened to it in high school

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

I STILL listen to Sunbather at least weekly.

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

thanks for the reminder, will play it again

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

literalli was just listening back to this

Sun bat her? I hardly know her!

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

I put this album on every now and then when I'm painting miniatures. It helps me zone out the rest of the world and focus. I especially love Irresistible for that dreamy, nostalgic feeling. Feels like a nice, relaxing afternoon with a little melancholy in it.

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. ❤🤘

I'll never forget the first time I listened to the title track. One of the greatest songs ever written

This very scene of metal you're talking about has been one of my favorite music scenes for a while now. Really nice to see it talked about in this channel. Love Sunbather

Saw them perform this album recently at Roadburn. They were Unbelievable and absolutely crushing. A lot of emotion still 10 years later

THANK YOU for shouting out WITTR! Majorly underrated.

Can't wait to this in full at ATG this year 🙌

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.

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