Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	92/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
Absolutepunk	100%
Allmusic
The A.V. Club	A
CraveOnline	8.5/10
Consequence of Sound	4.5/5
Decibel	9/10
Exclaim!	9/10
Pitchfork Media	8.9/10
Rolling Stone
Spin	8/10

Sunbather is the second studio album by the American metal band Deafheaven. After the release of their debut record Roads to Judah, the then two piece group consisting of George Clarke and Kerry McCoy began work on Sunbather under the label Deathwish and recorded in several days in January 2013. The recording process brought a third member into the fold with drummer Dan Tracy who would go on to become a permanent fixture of the band. The album was recorded in The Atomic Garden Recording Studio, owned by Jack Shirley who had been a long time producer of the band.

Although Deafheaven had been strongly influenced by black metal as well as diverse other metal acts, their music drew comparisons from music critics to shoegaze, post-rock, and alternative rock sounds. This trend was further continued on Sunbather. The melancholic songs featured in the album include wall of sound arrangements that are found in many shoegazing and post-rock acts, producing dense sounds that sometimes breakdown into slower, melodic parts that are then topped with vocalist George Clarke's reverb-soaked screaming style singing of lyrics. The album also contains a few interludes that include sampling, field recording, and droning.

Sunbather was released in June 2013 and received universal critical acclaim, with Metacritic acknowledging it as "the best-reviewed major album" of the year.

Deafheaven began as a band with vocalist George Clarke and guitarist Kerry McCoy as the two core musicians and songwriters. After getting the attention of record label Deathwish's co-founder Tre McCarthy when he found Deafheaven's untitled demo on the internet, the band was signed to its first record label. Despite being plagued with an inconsistent group line up since the inception of the band, Deafheaven were able to record their debut album Roads to Judah as a quintet. The album was met with favorable reviews noting its dynamic influences, such as music reviewing publication Pitchfork proclaiming that it "blends shredding West Coast black metal, Explosions in the Sky dynamics, a healthy My Bloody Valentine infatuation, a floor-punching hardcore sensibility, and anguished (but romantic) vocal eruptions by clean-cut frontman George Clarke.".

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