It's not that different from where they were heading on OCHL and I reference this in my review; the biggest change is George's switch to clean singing, in the main, and much less metal influence. Cleaves closer to shoegaze than they've ever done before imo but the switch-up makes sense in hindsight.
"Shellstar" is so sunny and massive. I love it. The last half of "Lament for Wasps" is breathtaking. Scratch that. The whole album is just mesmerizing. "Villian", "Mombasa"... Why did I even doubt these guys?
I got a black copy from Amazon that's arriving tomorrow, but my Hello order hasn't shipped yet. I read that the Shellstar variant got delayed, but I'm not sure if that's the case for other colors.
the back half of this record is just one grand slam after another. i was expecting it to be great but this is a completely different level than i anticipated. and if you know me you know my anticipation was sky high. fuck. villain, the gnashing, other language, and mombasa just won music for the remainder of the 2020's
I loved how the Stereogum reviewer mentioned the whole album plays like a great big crescendo eventually ending with "Mombasa". It's such a chill, yet huge record with peaks and valleys everywhere you turn, but everything builds all the way to the insane end.
the opening trio of songs is great but man they do not really prepare you for what's in store following neptune and lament for wasps
JMJ's work here is astounding. super glad they kept jack on to engineer though it keeps it sounding like a true deafheaven record. but there's this cinematic widescreen vibe to it that focuses more on textures than ever before, which is saying something for a band defined by their guitar-as-texture approach from the jump. but its a completely different level here, things jump out at you and duck back away under the wall of sound frequently. you never know what you're gonna get around any corner. a shredding guitar solo drenched in reverb over a suspiciously metal sounding riff to close out the gnashing, a super up front, power metal solo in the middle of lament for wasps that sounds like iron maiden if you tilt your head the right way. the bright, shimmering acoustic to open up mombasa, the layers upon layers of synthesizers and sequencers on neptune, the haunting vocal production flickering all over "villain," there's just so fucking much going on here