Roads to Judah

Roads to Judah is the debut studio album by the American blackgaze band Deafheaven. The album was released by Deathwish Inc. on April 26, 2011.^[6] Roads to Judah was recorded in four days between December 2010 and January 2011.^[7]

Roads to Judah
Studio album by Deafheaven
Released	April 26, 2011 (2011-04-26)
Recorded	December 2010 – January 2011
Studio	Atomic Garden Studio, East Palo Alto, California
Genre	Blackgaze[1] atmospheric black metal[2] post-metal
Length	38:21
Label	Deathwish (DW120)
Producer	Jack Shirley, Deafheaven
Deafheaven chronology
Demo (2010) Roads to Judah (2011) Deafheaven / Bosse-de-Nage (2012)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Decibel	8/10[3]
Metal Storm	9.3/10[4]
Rock Sound	6/10[5]
RVA	Positive[2]

About

The album title is a reference to N Judah, one of the busiest lines in the San Francisco transit system.^[8] Lyrically, the album is about Clarke's substance abuse.^[9]

Reception

Roads to Judah was met with generally positive reviews. Shane Mehling of Decibel gave the album an eight out of ten, and praised it for pushing the boundaries of black metal. He wrote that, "This band produces long, incredibly beautiful black metal that, aside from the buried shrieks of the vocalist, doesn't have a drop of evil or noticeable malice" and that Deafheaven is "sure as hell doing a lot more with the genre than the newest batch of gauntlet-wearing Darkthrone worshipers."^[3] Graham Scala of RVA Magazine wrote that Deafheaven's songs are, "all a series of graceful transitions and dynamic shifts in timbre, rather than marathon blastbeat sessions or one effects-laden crescendo after another. This is a distinction which not only separates them from the majority of their contemporaries, but has provided the basis for a memorable and compelling release."^[2] However, Alex Deller of Rock Sound gave the album a six out of ten stating that Deafheaven's blend of black metal and shoegaze was not "an entirely new proposition" and compared the album to the music of Liturgy.^[5]

Accolades

Publication	Country	Accolade	Rank
The A.V. Club[10]	US	Loud's Top 15 of 2011	12
Decibel[11]	US	Top 40 Extreme Albums of 2011	36
MSN[12]	US	The Top 50 Albums of 2011	17
NPR[13]	US	The Best Metal Albums of 2011	6
Pitchfork[14]	US	Top 40 Metal Albums of 2011	22

Track listing

All songs written and recorded by Deafheaven.^[7]

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Violet"	12:19
2.	"Language Games"	6:46
3.	"Unrequited"	9:31
4.	"Tunnel of Trees"	9:45
Total length:		38:21

Personnel

Adapted from the album liner notes.^[7]

Deafheaven

• Nick Bassett – guitars
• George Clarke – vocals
• Trevor Deschryver – drums
• Kerry McCoy – guitars
• Derek Prine – bass

Production

• Jack Shirley – production, engineering, mixing, mastering
• Deafheaven – production

Artwork

• R. Sawyer – cover art, insert art
• N. Steinhardt – package design