Taking a break from Everything Is Noise these last seven months helped me recalibrate not only what music I’m infatuated with, but also the way I consume it. At the time I was constantly chasing the next best thing, overconsuming it, putting it aside and the cycle continued. Stopping the writing, dialling back on the new music, I found comfort (as everyone does) in nostalgia, but most importantly, those overconsumed but bloody brilliant records.
DVNE‘s Asheran and Etemen Ænka quickly ascended back to the top of my playlist, and when Voidkind appeared on our review list soon after the brilliant, yet intriguing single “Plērōma”, I decided it was time to come back and weigh in on what these fine chaps had delivered unto us this time around, levying my thoughts for the third time in a row on this stunning band.
Well, let me tell you, they haven’t just delivered, they’ve brought down five legions of the Emperor’s Sardaukar to lay waste to your eardrums with improvements across the board. Everything from the mix to the quality of the vocals, the better balancing of synths, riffs, song and album structure, it’s consistently brilliant and balanced. No improvement blocks the rays of creativity from any of the members and this is what I consider the ultimate DVNE experience so far.
What separates DVNE from the rest of the burgeoning collection of post-metal/prog/doom/sludge/blackened bands out there? DVNE writes songs that can continuously evolve, and consistently grow in stature, even when there doesn’t seem room possible. The riffs are thundering from the first second, but somehow they keep escalating, cleverly using contrasting moments of light vocals to lull you into a false sense of security. Second, they perfectly toe the line between raw metal and production perfection, imbuing the listener with pure emotion – that also sounds fucking exceptional through every speaker you own. Finally, I feel they have one of the best go-to-market strategies of any band on the market now. Their merch, live shows, and consistent content, not to mention how they perfectly keep up with the zeitgeist of modern metal and slightly adapt to it are unmatched. More on that last point later.
Fawning aside, let’s get to Voidkind, for… more of the same. DVNE have a habit of packing the first four tracks of their albums with absolute rippers and I’m pleased to report much of the same in Voidkind. Opener “Summa Blasphemia” shatters your peace with an artillery barrage of riffs and raucous vocals. You’ll notice straight away the cleaner separation between the instrument layers compared to the ones on Etemen Ænka. The heavy vocals are ferocious but this time completely prominent, leading the charge instead of being part of a collective vanguard of noise.
In the following track “Eleonora”, when compared to songs like “Towers” and “Court Of The Matriarch”, you’ll notice the band leaning less heavily on the synths in the contrasting, slower sections, leaving more space for the instruments to shine – especially the drums. This, paired with the amazing progressive guitar work, creates an amazing esoteric feeling before the band leans heavily back into the heavy riffs, injecting rocket fuel into those feelings and emotions.
“Reaching for Telos” is arguably one of DVNE‘s best songs ever. Easily one of Viktor’s greatest vocal performances for the band, in the explosive start to the track, he doesn’t let up for two whole minutes, with impassioned cleans leading to raw, emotionally charged heavies. The following instrumental contrasting section reminds me deeply of The Contortionist‘s “Flourish”, sending you to another plane of existence. Listening to this track loud swamps your senses in such a way that it sends you to metal nirvana.
Tracks four to seven frame how important the storytelling in their albums is to DVNE. It dials back the furore, slipping in what feels like more narrative. Fans of Asheran will enjoy “Sarmatæ”, with a return to more of the Eastern-inspired riffs, as the origins of the name of the track also no doubt imply. The interludes (tracks five and seven) are much more engaging this time and shorter too, something we’d critiqued on their last record.
Closing the album hasn’t ever been a problem for DVNE but I will always lean more towards the earlier tracks in both Asheran and Etemen. With Voidkind however, I see it as a tragedy if I can’t make it to the finish. The final three are titanic, like the conclusion of an epic battle, raging on both land and in the stars. “Abode of the Perfect Soul” is another top 6 track from DVNE for me, and arguably is one of the best prog-metal songs I’ve heard in the last decade. The influences are plain as day, but DVNE has woven them so perfectly into their fabric, that it feels fresh and organic, not just rehashed Tool-prog.
This leads me back to that point I made earlier about DVNE perfectly aligning with what, in my own opinion, feels like the zeitgeist of modern metal. 2017 – Asheran is a raw, doomy space epic with oodles of prog, released at the start of the new wave of doom. In the next 2-3 years doom and post-metal ascend massively in popularity, whilst we see from the popular prog-metal space a big lurch to blend synths. Etemen launches in 2021, soaked in post and synths, really propelling the band higher. Voidkind leans more so this time on the psychedelia, something the market is displaying a massive appetite for, whilst also paying service to their previous records in droves.
Because of this, despite the very obvious and unmoving core of their sound, each album feels unbelievably fresh. I recently flew from the UK to San Jose, CA, and listened to every album, bar the live one, back to back whilst reading the final 40% of Iain M Banks‘ Excession. Finishing up the book and album run in near unison was one of those media consumption moments that stick with you for ages, the final ‘battles’ of both Excession and Voidkind lining up perfectly. Going back to my point, I never once was bored of their sound, owing in fact to the band’s exceptional sound and songwriting progression, but also the thematical differences between each album.
Needless to say, Voidkind is my album of the year so far, checking every box I’d hoped for in terms of the band’s progression, album length, and production quality. Make sure to check them out live as well on their European run over the summer, their show is truly one of the best out there at the moment.
