Gig review: Deafheaven at The Palais

Deafheaven are touring their latest LP, Lonely People With Power, a return to the grindey blackgaze they built their reputation on. It has gone down a storm with fans and critics alike, blending a crushingly heavy atmosphere with the disarmingly catching melodies that have always made Deafheaven stand out from their contemporaries. It is easily in my top albums of the year and I couldn’t wait to hear how it translated live.

First, Zeruel opened the night with a heavy, shoegazey set with a surprisingly groovy punch. The 22-year-old is making waves through the alternative music scene with a string of big name support slots, including this run which is his first overseas tour! Blight was a particular highlight.

Portrayal Of Guilt (above) were next, bringing their bleak, furious black metal to a now packed room at The Palais. The band lurked in the corners of the shadowy stage, heads down, focused on their instruments. Guitarist and vocalist Matt King peered menacingly out into the audience, occasionally bathed in the blood red venue lights. Portrayal Of Guilt sound massive for a trio, especially impressive in a genre so reliant on layered walls of sound to get their punishing message across. Where many bands rely on two guitars, Portrayal Of Guilt sound superb with one.

Playing mostly from their 2023 album Devil Music, their live set was packed full of some of the most aggressive and raw songs I have heard for some time. The 90-second burst of One Last Taste Of Heaven into the atmospheric intro of Burning Hand was pulled off superbly. There is an art to translating this kind of crushing music to a live setting and I think Portrayal Of Guilt got it right. There were just enough sludgier, spacier riffs in the set to give enough dynamic range to really feel the grindey blast beats when they kicked in.

The band had some custom visuals to back them up throughout their set, setting an unsettling tone for their set from the get-go. We were treated to a miniature, vocals-only version of Bed Of Ash to cap off the set, ending a great performance on a high note. 

Finally, Deafheaven emerged to rapturous applause. Doberman was the opener as the band burst into their set with gusto. Part of what makes this band so special is the energy they bring to their live performances - a skill they honed over many years of playing hardcore shows to kids who didn’t quite understand what they were aiming for. The term ‘black metal’ conjures up images of dour faced Scandinavians in corpse paint not cracking even the faintest smile as they play, but Deafheaven are cut from a different cloth. They play with the energy and stage antics of a punk band; jumping around, kicking the air and ordering the crowd to get off their feet when the blast beats come back in. It elevates the experience of their music to a higher level and it was immediately obvious that everyone in the audience was blown away.

Sunbather drew an expectedly enthusiastic reaction from the crowd and Amethyst brought them into a frenzy. With a quick swoosh of his arms vocalist George Clarke had a wall of death formed. What followed was surely the largest moshpit The Palais has ever seen in its (modern day) short designation as a gig venue. Perhaps the largest number of crowd-surfers too? Let me know if you can think of any other contenders!

After a short break the band returned to the stage, swimming through orange lights as they moved into Dream House. Blackgaze has never sounded so good as this song, a seamless blend of heaviness and melodic purity and arguably the band’s most famous song to date. Limbs were flying in the pit and a few shirts even got removed. Finally the band ended on a beautifully performed Winona. Truly a spectacular performance.

Before they signed off, Deafheaven promised to be back, perhaps sooner than we would think... You should all try your hardest to be there when they do.

Deafheaven performed at The Palais on 30th November 2025.

@deafheavenband