Deafheaven have unexpectedly released three new songs, and the accompanying film involves a rather remarkable name from outside the metal world. Janusz Kamiński, the Polish cinematographer who won Oscars for Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan”, is behind the camera on the band’s new “Hunter” film, directed by Nico Poalillo.
The San Francisco black metal band released “At Work In The Fields Of The Bomb” on October 9 through Roadrunner Records. The three-track EP is their first new music since 2025’s “Lonely People With Power”, and guitarist Kerry McCoy had already given listeners a pretty direct indication of what to expect.
Speaking to Binaural in September, McCoy called it “the heaviest thing we’ve ever released”, adding, “It’s definitely the closest thing to black metal we’ve ever done.”
The EP had been quietly making its way into circulation before its digital release, with physical copies appearing at recent shows and the band playing new songs live earlier in October.
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“At Work In The Fields Of The Bomb” contains “Hunter”, “Three Princes” and “Sorry Laid The Hearth”. The songs move into a harsher, more black metal-driven part of Deafheaven’s catalogue, with “Hunter” drawing comparisons to the band’s particularly aggressive 2019 standalone single “Black Brick”. The opening track brings fast, abrasive guitars and George Clarke’s screamed vocals to the front, with considerably less room given to the cleaner, shoegaze-influenced passages associated with much of their earlier work.
The title comes from photographer Robert Del Tredici’s 1987 book “At Work in the Fields of the Bomb”, which documented the American nuclear weapons industry. Del Tredici photographed factories, workers, scientists and communities involved in or affected by the production of nuclear weapons, examining the everyday processes behind weapons capable of destroying entire populations.
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Deafheaven take that subject into the EP, concentrating on the human decisions and industrial systems that make nuclear catastrophe possible. The record deals with the distance between ordinary work carried out by ordinary people and the consequences of what they are helping to produce.
The accompanying “Hunter” production is particularly interesting for its film crew. Director Nico Poalillo worked with George LeSage Clarke IV, who receives the writing credit, and Nick Steinhardt of 23in, who handled creative direction. Janusz Kamiński is credited as director of photography, with Mamie Green overseeing choreography and dancers Ryley Polak, Jobel Medina, Hope Spears and Brenan Gonzalez appearing in the production.
For Polish readers, Kamiński’s involvement is a pretty special connection. Born in Ziębice and raised in Wrocław, he moved to the United States in the early 1980s, studied cinematography at Columbia College Chicago and continued his training at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.
His early professional work included productions associated with Roger Corman, followed by “Wildflower”, the 1991 television film directed by Diane Keaton. His work eventually brought him to Steven Spielberg, initially on the television project “Class of ’61”, before their first major feature collaboration on “Schindler’s List” in 1993.
That film earned Kamiński his first Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Five years later, he won his second for “Saving Private Ryan”, whose combat photography, particularly the Omaha Beach sequence, remains among the most recognisable work of his career.
Kamiński has since shot more than twenty Spielberg films. His credits include “The Lost World: Jurassic Park”, “A.I. Artificial Intelligence”, “Minority Report”, “Catch Me If You Can”, “Munich”, “War Horse”, “Lincoln”, “Bridge of Spies”, “The Post”, “West Side Story” and “The Fabelmans”. Outside that partnership, he has worked on “Jerry Maguire” and Julian Schnabel’s “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”.
Having a cinematographer with that background working on a Deafheaven film is a fairly unusual meeting of Hollywood filmmaking and extreme music. It’s also a substantial Polish contribution to a release from one of the most internationally recognised bands to come out of the modern black metal and shoegaze crossover.
The wider “Hunter” production includes producer Orson Oblowitz, executive producer Casey Engelhardt, head of production Adam Litt, production designer Krystall Schott and editor Shane Patrick Ford. Luke Hanlein, who is credited as Camera Operator B, also receives a cinematography credit for “Three Princes”. Marcin Szociński is credited as the focus puller for Camera B, adding another Polish name to the technical crew.
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The release also arrives during a busy stretch of touring for Deafheaven. They are currently on the road with Mastodon, with dates across the United States throughout October, including Oakland, Los Angeles, Denver, St. Louis, Memphis and Atlanta. Alcest join the October 11 show in Del Mar.
The EP follows a particularly active period around “Lonely People With Power”, which featured contributions from Paul Banks of Interpol and Jae Matthews of Boy Harsher. The new three-song recording features no outside guest vocalists.
“At Work In The Fields Of The Bomb” is available digitally now.
Upcoming US shows:
– October 9: Oakland, CA, Fox Theater
– October 10: Los Angeles, CA, Hollywood Palladium
– October 11: Del Mar, CA, The Sound (with Alcest)
– October 14: Denver, CO, Fillmore Auditorium
– October 16: West Des Moines, IA, Val Air Ballroom
– October 17: St. Louis, MO, The Pageant
– October 18: Memphis, TN, Satellite Music Hall
– October 20: Cleveland, OH, Agora Theatre
– October 21: Greensboro, NC, Piedmont Hall
– October 22: Atlanta, GA, The Eastern
– October 24: Fort Worth, TX, Sick New World
