Dvne - Voidkind (2024)^{Release ID: 51521}

I've likely mentioned this in a previous album review, but as I get older, my tolerance for progressive metal becomes more thin. I still listen to a lot of progressive music or progressive adjacent music, but a lot of it goes by the wayside as not only becomes less distinguishable, but also loses out on many of the key factors that make music memorable in the first place; primarily the use of melodic motifs and growth throughout both a song, and albums runtime.

Dvne were a band I caught onto relatively late. When I initially heard their 2017 album Asheran, I thought it was okay, but played too heavy into the sludgier aspects of the genre were good, but found them too derivative of other bands like the Ocean and ISIS. Voidkind by comparison is still fairly derivative, but I can tell through influences that Dvne are carving more of their own path and I'm all here for it.

Initially, I noticed that this album sounded less booming as previous releases. That might seem strange given how "Summa Blasphemia" starts, but it's more relaxed aggression than before. The moment it clicked for me was on "Reaching for Telos" and how the soaring post-metal passages sounded eerily familiar to Alcest. That, paired with the sludgy, riff heavy "Reliquary" creates a huge dichotomy of sounds that still somehow connect together through motivic development. 

Voidkind has some great sound engineering on display. I already how much more this record sounds like traditional post-metal as opposed to sludge metal, so the guitar work is robust, but it never feels like the main attraction of the album. Both clean and harsh vocals can be heard with utmost clarity, the percussion retains the doom-y grooves; the snare and bass drums are not obtrusive, and not only is the bass prominent in the performance, but it also receives a fair share of independent moments as well. 

The reason I cannot rate the album any higher than this score has to do with connectivity of the whole thing. Now, usually this would not be a bad thing, but in Dvne's case, Voidkind feels a little bit too comfortable. There is some good variety on display as already mentioned, but my general feeling of the record is one of familiarity. The album starts off remarkably well, but around the time of the first interlude, "Path of Dust" Voidkind just meanders to its conclusion. This could be caused by a number of things, but the most obvious one is the lack of tonal shifts. Every song is either in the same key center, or a closely related key center from track one to track ten and it does make for a tiring full listen, even after multiple playthroughs. Add on top of this the almost one hour runtime and it leaves me wanting something more.

But I still cannot see myself not recommending Voidkind to post-metal and sludge metal fans alike. This will definitely be one of those albums that will be carried by the quality of its individual moments rather than its cohesivness as a full record. If you like the melodic, dense side of sludge metal, then there is no way this should not be essential listening in 2024.

Best Songs: Summa Blasphemia, Eleonora, Reliquary, Sarmatæ, Plērōma