Voidkind doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel on Dvne’s sound. What we get is still expansive prog-sludge in ye olde Mastodon vein with a post-metal bend. But that bend has notably diminished since Etemen Ænka. Voidkind is more compact, more direct, more impatient. “Summa Blasphemia” barely gives you the time to adjust your seat before hitting you in the face with the band’s trademark avalanche of sound, roars on top of riffs on top of rolling drums that combine into a juggernaut you can only ride, not resist. When the clean vocals come in, they have clearly improved the technical execution. More solid and more confident, hardly a trace of the old thin waver is left, and it fits the less roundabout approach of the band. With a few cool tricks up its sleeve, like the feint-and-swirl on the main riff, “Summa” makes for a powerful opener that sets expectations high for the rest of the album.
But the new approach comes at a cost. One of the greatest strengths of Dvne’s prior albums was the sense of flow. With fewer and shorter builds, the flow is less apparent on Voidkind. As a consequence, the album’s overall dynamics are reduced, as well as the grandeur. Despite adding a keyboard player, the keys are far less prominent, which pulls Voidkind back down to Earth after the prior cosmic endeavors. With the layering thus simplified, the onus is more on individual parts; riffs, drum performance, vocals. Though all of these are good, none of these hit as hard on their own as they do when pulling together, the way only Dvne can do. Though I can (somewhat) excuse all of these under experimenting with the band’s core sound; what they did to the production, though, is harder to swallow. Pulled back from a DR6 only by the scruff of two brief interludes, the drums sound especially flat and free of impact, and when you have a drummer like Dudley Tait, that is a jailable offense.
But man, this band still knows how to write a fucking song. “Sarmatae” with its whirling, multi-part riff and aggressively staccato drums. “Abode of the Perfect Soul” and its face-caving start, followed by dynamic shifts between big riffs and roars left and shimmering fragile expanses right. A few tracks still hew closer to the build-ups of yore. “Eleonora”‘s midsection constructs its ascent with meticulous precision, culminating in an awesome, explosive drop into turmoil currents. And closer “Cobalt Sun Necropolis” tries something similar, but doesn’t feel quite as focused in its journey. Though saved somewhat by its dark atmosphere, it’s the only tune that doesn’t seem to stick well and the ending hurts my ears with a wall of static. On an otherwise very strong track list, this is only a small step down, but a strong closer would have gone far for Voidkind.
This was a difficult album to review. Releasing in the middle of Roadburn pushed me past the deadline, but my difficulty in making up my mind about it just delayed it further. Listening to individual tunes, the strong opening salvo, the imaginative riffs, I’ll feel like it’s another slam dunk. But looking back upon it afterward, it doesn’t feel as unified and complete an experience as I would want it to be. Couple this with the unimpressive production and I cannot but gently move Dvne down a peg. That’s coming from a very high bar, however. The excellent songwriting and ditto performances ensure that Voidkind remains a must-hear for prog-sludge fans.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Metal Blade Records
Websites: songs-of-arrakis.bandcamp.com | songsofarrakis.com | facebook.com/dvneuk
Releases Worldwide: April 19th, 2024
