There’s always been something disorienting about Deafheaven. Not just the sound, though that alone has warped expectations of what black metal can be, but the way their music seems to stretch in two directions at once: toward abrasion and toward something almost luminous. Now, with the announcement of their biggest Australian tour to date, that tension arrives on local stages at its most fully realised.
Formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010, Deafheaven have spent the last fifteen years refusing to stay still. From the raw urgency of Roads to Judah through to the genre-shifting bloom of Sunbather, and on through New Bermuda, Ordinary Corrupt Human Love and Infinite Granite, the band have carved out a space that feels entirely their own. It is music that holds contradiction close: violence and vulnerability, weight and release, collapse and clarity.
Their latest album, Lonely People With Power, lands as both culmination and confrontation. Produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen, the record leans into the full breadth of the band’s identity, threading melody through distortion and pairing moments of restraint with overwhelming force. Lyrically, it circles questions of masculinity, inheritance and self-perception, suggesting that while the past may be inescapable, the future remains negotiable. It is Deafheaven at their most human, and perhaps their most unguarded.
That sense of scale has always translated live. Their shows don’t just fill rooms; they seem to reconfigure them, turning venues into something closer to a shared internal space. It’s a reputation built across global stages, from Coachella to Primavera Sound, and reinforced on their last Australian visit, where they sold out Hobart’s Odeon during Dark Mofo.
Joining them on this run are Philadelphia shoegaze architects Nothing, whose latest record A Short History of Decaysharpens their already immersive sound into something more defined, more immediate. Opening proceedings are Oakland hardcore outfit SPY, whose ferocious live presence has quickly set them apart in a crowded landscape.
Across Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle and Brisbane, this tour feels less like a victory lap and more like a statement of intent. Deafheaven are not revisiting old ground. They are expanding it.
Tickets go on sale from 9:00 AM local time on Friday 27 March, with pre-sale beginning Thursday 26 March.
Go HERE for ticketing info.
