In Blur

Well, I think this song pretty much sets in stone that, yeah, we aren't really getting any metal on Infinite Granite. Sure, "Great Mass of Color" and "The Gnashing" had some bits at the end- The former even having some screams there- but that's about it.

And honestly, while I really do miss that and feel that a little splash of distorted guitars or screaming would give it that je ne sais quoi to top everything off perfectly, I'm not broken-hearted. The material we got is fantastic so far, save for George's vocals on "The Gnashing". In fact, I went into this song with the simple thought of "Please just let it be good". Those five words were all I could think when I saw that they released a new song. "The Gnashing" really scared me into fearing that "Great Mass of Color" would be the best we got vocal-wise. Thankfully, my fears were proven incorrect. George's vocals sound really nice here. They're good, they're pleasant, and although the band is going full-in on Shoegaze, his vocals are at the front of the mix, which I love. I found that to be a crippling problem in Sunbather, which most people just said was "a staple of shoegaze, it's better like that". No, it was a shit decision to mix them like that, I don't care if it was a staple of either subgenre, it just didn't sound good.

The guitars are more like "Great Mass of Color" than "The Gnashing", and they're the lightest and most shoegaze-y they've been out of the three singles. There are even what sounds like acoustic guitars on there. Towards the end, they take more of an old alt rock sound (Well, 90s or early 2000s, anyways), and while it doesn't pervade the mix, it adds enough to make quite the difference. It all sounds wonderful, especially when combined with the drums (Which are a midway point between Daniel's usual breakneck pace and the more relaxed drumming of the previous singles) and the bass, which sounds so fucking good here. It has a bit of a buzzing sound which rounds out the mix, and it elevates the sound so much. Like standard Deafheaven material, it goes through quite a bit of structure-shifting here, with the most obvious cue to this being the drums going from (For example) quick and cymbal-centric to slower and more tom-centric. The song, overall, is a mix of pleasant instrumentation and an overall wall of sound, with the former being both what draws one in and the staple of Slowdive-sounding shoegaze. The latter of which goes with the lyrics, being hazy, confused, and blurry because it becomes tough to comprehend everything unless one focuses on one thing in particular at a time. It makes for incredibly engaging repeated listens, and given that the song has many layers and fantastic musicianship, you don't feel drained by listening to it over and over. Even then, there's the one flaw of simply wishing that it had a bit of heaviness, metal, or screaming at some point, but the song doesn't suffer all too much from the lack thereof.

"Great Mass of Color" made me excited for Infinite Granite, as I was all for the new direction, being a shoegaze fan. "The Gnashing" wowed me with the instrumentals, but it made me really scared about the vocals, since they were rather poor. "In Blur" has quelled me fears and has brought back the excitement in spades. I can't wait to hear the new album, and while I'm still holding on to hope for some screams and heaviness at times, it's pretty much confirmed to me that we won't be getting those. Still, I'm really happy with what we have, and I can't wait for more.