Infinite granite is the best album

Hot take: it's their best. It's closely followed by sunbather, but edges out the former in the originality department. Sunbather wasn't the first Blackgaze record, it was just the first to really nail it. And it does fucking NAIL it. but IG hits different.

IG is perhaps the most cohesive work they've done yet. The album has some variety sure but when listened to cover to cover, it's inarguably one piece of music. It's detractors tend to call it shoegaze but I challenge you to find a shoegaze band that sounds similar. It's closer to post metal if anything, but it's not quite that either. IG is perhaps the densest record I've heard, texturally, it's all just so thick and layered.

Id argue that it was deafheaven proving they can write extremely heavy material without relying on metal. It remains emotionally powerful throughout and at several moments surpasses the heaviness of any other songs theyve written.

Nowhere is this more evident than Lament fo Wasps. It's the high point of the first half of the album. Though I love the whole song, the malestrom you're thrown into at the finale is maybe one of the heaviest things I've heard. On a decent sound system at a good volume free of distractions, it is nearly impossible to not be nearly completely overwhelmed by just the sheer quantity of sound. It's insane.

The end of the gnashing is similar.

Then ofc there's Mombasa. And there's enough said there.

It's one of the most emotionally and sonically potent records I've ever listened to, and the reason it edges out Sunbather for number one is it's creativity and diversity.

OCHL was their most creative and diverse record imo, but it just failed to stick the landing in a few places. IG does not suffer this problem and remains nearly as interesting throughout.

Sunbather is 10 years old now. It was potent for the time and still slaps today, but it no longer stands alone as one of the only example of Blackgaze done really right.