ALBUM REVIEW: 10 Years Gone – Deafheaven

Despite the depressing lack of live performances, the amount of creative output otherwise has definitely helped fill the void left over. The fact that anywhere you look there are ample selections of both newer and older talents providing the best work many have ever put out thanks to the time gifted by the pandemic. Indeed, even live music has changed, with livestreams and recorded live performances becoming more the norm than ever before in the absence of opportunity to play to a live crowd. 

With the aforementioned time, things like live records become a new challenge in themselves, given the addition of extra time to ensure the perfect, crisp sound one would expect from a studio record paired with the live energy exuded from performing the songs. Few live albums truly capture the best of both worlds; the best of both the spontaneous and the meticulously planned. DEAFHEAVEN and their 10 Years Gone release helps show that the line can indeed be found and walked for what feels like a perfect set of live music. Of course that sounds hyperbolic, and there are moments during the set that certainly break the trance that the band cast upon the listener, but in more ways than one this record expertly captures just how awesome a band like DEAFHEAVEN are in a live environment. 

Kicking right into the groove with a spicy rendition of From Kettle to the Coil the clarity of the recording becomes immediately apparent. Everything works together whilst still having distinct space in the mix, and it collides together with glorious effect. Daedalus is a wall of joyous sound and the epic Vertigo allows the band to really highlight their skill as musicians and songwriters. For 14 short minutes the band take you on a sonic journey and the inflections in George Clarke’s voice help make this feel like a unique performance for you and you alone. 

The setlist is varied and spans the groups entire back catalogue, with Language Games representing Roads to Judah and Baby Blue from the excellent New Bermuda record. The latter has the band’s only weak moment of the set, with the guitar solo being the passage to break the trance, and the opening also dragging on for longer than necessary, especially after Vertigo from earlier on. Still though, one moment from a set as long as this is to be expected and forgiven, and with the epic final conclusion of Pecan Tree and Dream House, the record is brought to a trembling finale. 

This is comfortably one of the best live performances of the year, and to think this was a potential setlist for a smited tour makes it all the more bittersweet. If this is as close as we are going to get to it though, then it is a fine bridge between the present and their next album in the future. A collection of their finest cuts from across their storied career, 10 Years Gone is an excellent milestone for DEAFHEAVEN and further cements them as an iconic act through and through. If you need convincing of this band’s power and ability, look no further, and get excited for whatever they bring next. 

Rating: 9/10

10 Years Gone is out now via Sargent House. 

Like DEAFHEAVEN on Facebook.