Review by Daniel for Dvvell - Quiescent (2022)

I hadn’t had the pleasure of being introduced to Californian five-piece Dvvell before Sonny selected their brand new debut full-length “Quiescent” as the November feature release for our The Fallen clan but you can mark me down as being emphatically converted in a short space of time because this four-track album fits my taste profile to a tee. What we have here is a crushingly heavy & unapologetically dark piece of work that is relentless in its commitment to undiluted doom & it sounds just as good as that description sounds. That’s not to say that it’s a perfect record as there are some small challenges to overcome if you're to fully uncover the album's charms but there’s certainly enough quality here to satisfy the vast majority of the extreme doom audience.

“Quiescent” is benefitted from a thick & super-heavy production job which highlights the superbly tight rhythm section through a big bass guitar sound. The riffs invariably sit in the slow to medium-slow range & if the album has a weakness it’s definitely in its lack of variety because Dvvell define their sound very early on & stick to their guns throughout the entire hour’s duration. The Dvvell sound is really very simple to describe in all honesty. Slow riffs based entirely on open power-chords, ethereal tremolo-picked higher-register melodies that draw influence from post-rock & anguished female black metal screams… yep, that about sums it up really. So why is it so effective? I think it’s because of the execution which is absolutely top notch, particularly that of drummer Brett Weiser who is the clear highlight with his powerful metronomic performance giving the material the extra clout & precision it requires to consistently pummel the listener into submission. Brett’s kick drum hits in exact unity with every dinosauric power chord & his fills maintain my interest during the sections where the music is completely devoid of hooks. The melodies I mentioned don’t always hit exactly on the sweet spot they’re aiming for but when they do (as in the first half of closing track & album highlight “Daughter”) they can be seriously effective & I find myself hanging out for those moments while sitting through the album as a whole.

It's interesting that most websites seem to label “Quiescent” (& most albums like it) as sludge metal, often with the doom component being tagged as funeral doom metal. I struggle to find the sludge metal in this release to be honest as there’s not a lot of abrasive hardcore anger going on. Personally, I’d suggest that this release represents a strong case for the “blackened doom metal” tag as the music is clearly doom metal & the vocals just as obviously come from black metal realms rather than sludge metal aggression. The consistently slow tempos do hint at funeral doom metal at times & I find myself being reminded of England’s Moss in that regard but I don’t think the atmosphere is ever in line with the mournful slumbers that we generally expect from that particular subgenre. Instead I'd suggest that it shares more similarities with that of artists like fellow Californians Chrch or Oregon’s Hell although those bands admittedly change things up a bit more than Dvvell do.

Despite the saminess that “Quiescent” is undeniably guilty of, I simply can’t deny the appeal of an unapologetically dark & doomy release like this one, particularly when the execution is as powerful as it is here. “Quiescent” commands the listener to play it super-loud so as to become engulfed by the sheer weight of sound with the blackened vocals of Kristy Senko-Hall beckoning you to embrace the darkness.

For fans of Chrch, Hell & Moss.