Dvne return with their third album.
Three years after Etemen Ænka, the band comprising Dan Barter (vocals), Victor Vicart (keyboards/vocals/guitar), Allan Paterson (bass/guitar), Dudley Tait (drums) and new recruit Maxime Keller (keyboards/vocals) unveil Voidkind, on Metal Blade Records again.
The album gets off to a flying start with Summa Blasphemia, which immediately carries us away with its ethereal blend of heaviness and rage, but also the soaring tones that dominate the composition. Clean vocals and screams answer each other under a shifting rhythm that leaves as much room for calm as for violence, leading us to the complex but fascinating Eleonora, which relies on tapping and its heady patterns to hypnotize us before releasing the vocal parts and powerful rhythm. The band perfectly exploits its explosive Prog roots before returning to a brighter sound on Reaching for Telos, letting the joyful catchy patterns express themselves, although violence is sometimes present, creating a kind of playful contrast. We have a touch of melancholy before the final, which leads into the wild Reliquary, where riffs tangle together, following their spark of madness while remaining extremely coherent, creating more intense moments thanks to the saturation. It’s once again with the final that the composition reaches its climax, but despair will give way to quietude with Path of Dust, a soothing interlude where clean vocals lead us to Sarmatae to celebrate the return of worked riffs with dissonant harmonics that float naturally. The musicians give us another break with the icy Path of Ether and its gentle breeze, but it’s not long before the darkness resurfaces with the convoluted rhythm of Abode of the Perfect Soul, which floods us with its heaviness complemented by howls and clear vocals. The track progresses until it gradually fades into silence, eventually giving way to Pleroma and its strange cheerfulness, which begs to be battered by the brutality of the massive post roots, before being rocked by the break and floating back with us to Cobalt Sun Necropolis, the longest of the compositions, which gently weaves its spellbinding web while gradually giving way to dark aggression, before totally surrendering to it and exploding in mid-air.
Dvne masters every moment of Voidkind, creating a complex world in constant evolution. Don’t be fooled by its length, as the album will hypnotize you and allow you to deconstruct the riffs in no time.
85/100