If you have been following Vox&Hops for the past few years, you know how much Matt and I loved Dvne’s 2021 release Etemen Ænka. We both had it slotted in at number 2 of our top 10 and if it had not been for Worm and the magnificent Foreverglade, Dvne would have easily taken the top spot for me. Fast forward back to present day, Dvne is set to drop another new album in the coming days. They have been on an absolute tear when it comes to their full-length albums. Some revere 2017’s Asheran as one of the most important prog albums of the 2010’s and Etemen Ænka was no slouch either. Can Voidkind help them attain a hat trick of epic full-length releases and continue their upward trajectory?
Just like its predecessor, Voidkind is a ten-track behemoth that clocks in just under an hour (58:15 to be exact). Dvne wastes very little time getting the party started on opening track “Summa Blasphemia” with devastating riffs, pounding drums and harsh vocals right off the bat. No wasted time, just getting straight to the point. One of the many things that I love about this band is the way they record their albums. It feels like they are just jamming out in the studio and record them live on the fly. They always feel very organic and natural. The opening track is five and half minutes long, but it feels like it just flies by and is over in a blink of an eye. Their music just encapsulates you and takes you on a journey where time just seems to stop.
“Eleonora” starts off a little softer then the first track, with clean vocals and a single guitar over a simple drum pattern before blasting off to take the listener on a cosmic voyage. I’m not saying that the track is soft all around, there is still plenty of crushing riffs and harsh vocals, but this track shows Dvne’s creative versatility. While the heavy is still in play throughout the track, there are plenty of clean vocals, vocal harmonies and synth driven areas as well. The middle of the track brings back the single guitar approach over some percussion, giving the listener some breathing room on this nearly nine-minute track. Think of it as an instrumental track in the middle of the track. The track begins to build in anticipation as the clean vocals come back in before a growl emerges and the band explodes back to life, pummeling the listener with thick, sludge drenched riffs and some maniacal drumming from drummer Dudley Tait. This guy really shines throughout the album. The track ends on a fade out full of synth before moving on.
Tracks “Reaching for Telos” and “Reliquary” follow a similar formula of the first two tracks in which the former zips by at lightning speed and the latter takes you on another journey through space. They are far from copy and paste though.
Another thing that stood out was the run times of the instrumental tracks that help break up the album. On Etemen Ænka, the instrumentals were around three minutes apiece and while they did help break the album up and make it a bit more digestible, I felt they overstayed their welcome and drug on a bit too long. The two instrumental tracks on Voidkind, “Path of Dust” and “Path of Ether”, clock in right at about a minute and a half and bookend the track “Sarmatæ”, which is an absolute crusher. Think of the two instrumental tracks as a prologue and epilogue and “Sarmatæ” as a short story. Gives it the feel of an EP in the middle of the album. Not sure if that was the intention by the band but that was my take on it.
“Abode of the Perfect Soul” starts off with a bouncy, groovy riff that had me going back to that track over and over. One thing Dvne never fails to do is make mammoth riffs. Some of the riffs and hooks in this track are just so damn crushing. At time it feels like early Mastodon riffs joined with riffs from Baroness and morph into a titan riff, sending the weight of the world down upon the listener. Mixed in with the synth parts that they sprinkle around in the mix and they have me hooked for days. Voidkind still has plenty of synth, but it is not as prevalent in the mix as it was on Etemen Ænka. It allows the other instruments to come forward a bit and breathe more life into the tracks.
The lead single for the album was the track “Plērōma and what an epic track it is. I can see why they put it towards the end of the album. It feels like the listener has been on an interstellar journey on the first eight tracks and now they are approaching their destination. The vocal performances on this track gave me goosebumps the whole time. The first half of the track features the clean vocalist as the band plays towards the post-metal side of their spectrum, full of guitar melodies and thick bass. The sludge kicks in about two minutes in and reminds the listener of how sonically crushing this band can be. As the track continues, the band is jamming along as the synth enter the fray and ups the goosebump quotient to eleven. The growling vocals come in for a short moment to add to the crushing moment in this track. The last half of the track is purely instrumental, which is much needed as the final track approaches. Dvne knows when to continue to pummel this listener and when to pull back and let the listener catch their breath and appreciate the beauty of the music they are listening to.
Closing track “Cobalt Sun Necropolis” is the longest track of the lot, clocking in at a whopping nine minutes and 57 seconds. They always save the biggest and mightiest tracks for the last! The track starts of with some feedback and one single guitar playing for about two minutes, just adding to the anticipation of hearing the final track. Once the track takes off, our clean vocals take off again with some chanting gang vocals in between each vocal line as Mr. Tait drives the track with his stellar drumming. You can tell in this track that they were meticulous about the production aspect of this album. Every instrument has its own place in the mix, and one doesn’t drown out another. You can hear each riff, each bass line, each note played on the synth and every hit on the drum kit. The dueling harsh vocals in the middle of the track was a great touch as well. The two bellow at each either as the riffs swirl around them like a tornado and each cymbal hit is like a flash of lightning in between them. The single guitar and feedback return before the band starts sludging it up again. The harsh vocals take over and band speeds off into the ether, pummeling the listener one last time with their brand of heavy sludge.
I feel like Dvne has taken another massive step forward on Voidkind. The songwriting is impeccable, the production is massive and allows all of the instruments to shine on their own. They also continue to write music that sounds so organic and free flowing. If you are a fan of sludge, post-metal and even prog, you should check this album out and dig into their nearly flawless discography. The sky is the limit for Dvne and I am glad I am on the ride to the top with them!
- The Metal Architect
