Posted in Whathaveyou on May 7th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I follow DVNE — who are on tour now in Europe; I’ll see them later this week in Oslo — on Bandcamp, so I got the email for it when Live at the Biscuit Factory went up this past Friday, but there’s only so many hours in the day and so much electricity in the brain and here we are now talking about it. The new offering is relatively brief at 35 minutes — that’s four songs in DVNE-land — but there’s just no arguing with either performance or sound here. As far as heavy metal goes, I’ll take 2024’s Voidkind (review here) over most of what’s out there on the ‘progressive’ or any other side of it. An album loaded with charge, but poised, all-in on its expression but remaining distant enough from the material to use it to really tell a story. They’re not the kind of band that happens every day.
For A/V demonstration of that, check the video session posted of Live at the Biscuit Factory, which you’ll find down at the bottom of this post in addition to the audio from Bandcamp and the stream of Voidkind, which is just there because it should be there and you should hear it and blah blah blah I know you know this.
Off to the PR wire, then:
DVNE: Progressive Post-Metal Collective Releases Live At The Biscuit Factory; Full Live Session Now Playing + European Tour Underway
After the successful release of their third album, 2024’s Voidkind, followed by extensive touring all over Europe, DVNE decided to capture the live energy of some of the Voidkind songs and record it in a unique setting. “With this live session, we wanted to create something that felt intimate and real,” the band comments. “We picked some of our favorite tracks from Voidkind and set things up to reflect the atmosphere of our rehearsals. It’s a glimpse into how we come together as a band, and it’s clear from the performance just how much these songs and playing them together mean to us.”
Live At The Biscuit Factory Track Listing: 1. Eleonora 2. Sarmatae 3. Abode Of The Perfect Soul 4. Cobalt Sun Necropolis
DVNE kicked off a month-long European tour last week. The tour will be followed by several festival dates. See all remaining dates below.
DVNE Live [remaining dates]: 5/06/2025 De Casino – Sint-Niklaas, BE 5/07/2025 Vera – Groningen, NL 5/09/2025 Desertfest Oslo – Oslo, NO 5/10/2025 Bar Brooklyn – Stockholm, SE 5/11/2025 Stairway – Copenhagen, DK 5/13/2025 Cassiopeia – Berlin, DE 5/14/2025 Pod Minoga – Poznań, PL 5/15/2025 VooDoo Club – Warsaw, PL 5/16/2025 Escape Metalcorner – Vienna, AT 5/18/2025 Orto Bar – Ljubljana, SI w/ Allochiria 5/19/2025 Boogaloo Club – Zagreb, HR w/ Allochiria 5/20/2025 CK13 – Novi Sad, RS w/ Allochiria 5/21/2025 Pavé Culture Club – Sofia, BG w/ Allochiria 5/22/2025 Eightball Club – Thessaloniki, GR w/ Allochiria 5/23/2025 Skyland Live Stage – Larissa, GR w/ Allochiria 5/24/2025 Gazarte (Ground Stage) – Athens, GR w/ Allochiria 5/27/2025 Freakout Club – Bologna, IT 5/28/2025 Caves du Manoir – Martigny, CH 5/29/2025 Xtra Music Cafe – Zürich, CH 5/30/2025 Schon Schön – Mainz, DE 5/31/2025 Patronaat – Haarlem, NL 6/01/2025 Oslo Hackney – London, UK 6/12/2025 Rock for People – Hradec Králové, CZ 7/04/2025 Fumega Festival – Betanzos, SP 8/08/2025 Alcatraz Festival – Kortrijk, BE 8/16/2025 ArcTanGent Festival – Bristol, UK
DVNE: Victor Vicart – guitars, vocals Daniel Barter – guitars, vocals Dudley Tait – drums Alexandros Keros – bass Maxime Keller – keys
Posted in Reviews on April 10th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
A lot going on today, not the least of which is the Spring 2025 Quarterly Review passing the halfway mark. Normally this would’ve happened yesterday, but half of 70 records is 35 and unless I’ve got the math wrong that’s where we’re at here. It’s a decent time to check and see if there’s anything you’ve missed over the last couple days. You never know how something will hit you the next time.
The adventure continues…
Quarterly Review #31-40:
Messa, The Spin
Now signed to Metal Blade — which is about as weighty as endorsements get for anything heavy these days — Italy’s Messa emerge from the pack as cross-genre songwriters working at a level of mastery across their fourth album, The Spin, elevating riff-led songs with vocal melodicism and aesthetic flexibility. “Fire on the Roof” is a hook ready to tattoo itself to your brain, while “The Dress” dwells in its ambience before getting intense and deceptively technical — just because a band dooms out doesn’t mean they can’t play — ahead of the Iommi-circa-’80 solo’s payoff. It’s all very grand, very sweeping, very encompassing, very talented and expensive-sounding. “At Races” and “Reveal” postulate a single ‘Messa sound’ that someone more important than me will come up with a clever name for, and the band’s ascent of the last nine years will continue unabated as they’re heralded among the foremost stylistic innovators of their generation. You won’t be able to say they didn’t earn it.
Kansas-based heavy djent instrumentalists After Nations offer their fifth full-length, Surface | Essence, with a similar format to 2023’s The Endless Mountain (review here), and, fortunately, a similarly crushing ethic. Where the prior album explored Buddhist concepts, the band seem to have traded that for Hinduist themes, but the core approach remains in a mix of sounds churning and progressive. Meshuggah are a defining influence in the heavier material, but each ‘regular’ song (about four minutes) is offset by a shorter (about a minute) ambient piece of one sort or another, and so while Surface | Essence gives a familiar core impression, what the band add to that — including in short, Between the Buried and Me-ish quiet breaks like in “Yāti” and “Vīrya” — is their own. Not to harp on it, but the last record played out the same way and it worked there too. Eventually, one assumes, the two sides will bleed together and they’ll lay waste with that all their mathy interconnected atmospheric assault. As-is, the gigantism of their heaviest parts serves them well.
Taking its chiaroscuro thematic to a meta level, The Complicate Path to the Multiverse breaks its eight-song procession in half, with four heavy rockers up front followed by four acoustic-based cuts thereafter. It’s not a hard and fast rule — there’s still some funky wah in the penultimate “When it’s All Over,” for example — but it lets the Roman troupe give a sense of build as they make their way to “Cradle of Madness” in drawing the two sides of light and dark together. The lyrics do much of the heavier lifting in terms of the theme — that is, the heavier material isn’t overwhelmingly grim despite being the ‘darker’ side — but they let tonal crunch have its say in that regard as well, and side A brings to mind heavy rockers with a sense of progressivism like Astrosoniq while side B pays that off with a creative turn. If you don’t know what you’re getting going into it, the songwriting carries the day anyhow, and as laid back as the groove gets, there’s an urgency of expression underlying the delivery.
Likely no coincidence that London instrumentalist guitar/drum duo Bident — get it, bi-dent? two teeth? there are two of them in the band? ah forget it — launch their debut album, Blink, with “Psychological Raking.” That opener lives up to its billing in its movement between parts and sets up the overarching quirk and delight-in-throwing-a-twist that the subsequent eight tracks provide, shenanigans abound in “Calorina Leaper,” “Thhinking With a Moshcap On” and “Blink,” which renews the drum gallop at the end. With a noteworthy character of fuzz, Blink can accommodate the push of “Two-Note Pony” — which sure sounds like there’s bass on it — the nod in “Bovine Joni” and the sprint that takes hold in the second half of “That Sad,” and their use of the negative space where other instruments or vocals might be is likewise purposeful, but they don’t sound like they’re lacking in terms of arrangements thanks to the malleability of tone and tempo throughout. They operate in a familiar sphere, but there’s persona here that will come to fruition as they proceed.
Death-sludge and post-metallic lumber ooze forth from the five songs of Harvest of Ash‘s second full-length, Castaway, which keeps its atmospheric impulses in check through grounded riffing and basslines as the whole band takes straightforward nod and extreme metal methodologies and smashes them together in a grueling course like that of “Embracing.” Remember in like 1996 when a band like Skinlab or Pissing Razors could just make you feel like you needed to take a shower? There’s a bit of that happening on Castaway as well in the opening title-track or the nine-minute “Constellation” later on, what with its second-half murk and strident riff, but a turn to quieter contemplations or a flash of brighter tone, whatever it is that offsets the churn in a given song, gives breadth to all that misanthropic plodding and throaty gurgle. Accordingly, Harvest of Ash end up both aggressive and hypnotic. I’m not sure it is, at least entirely, but Castaway positions itself as post-metal, and if it is, it is its own interpretation of the style’s tropes.
Berlin’s Vlimmer — the solo-project of multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, label head and producer Alexander Leonard Donat — return on a not-surprising quick turnaround from late-’24’s full-length, Bodenhex (review here) with six new tracks that include a Super Furry Animals cover of “It’s Not the End of the World?” and quickly establish a goth-meets-new-wave electro dance melancholy in “Firmament” that gives over to the German-language “Ungleichgewicht,” residing stylistically somewhere between The Cure and krautrock experimentalism. Guitar comes forward in “Friedhofen,” but Donat keeps the mood consistent on Diskomfort where the album ranged more freely, and even as the title-track moves into its finishing wash, the bumout remains. And I don’t know if that’s an actual harpsichord on “Nachleben,” but it’s a reminder that the open arrangements are part of what keeps me coming back to Vlimmer, along with the fact that they don’t sound like anything else out there that I’ve heard, the music is unpredictable, and they take risks in craft.
When Duskhead posted “Two Heads” in December from their The Messenger four-songer EP, it was the first new music from the Netherlands-based rockers in a decade. Fair enough to call it a return, then, as the band — which features members culled from Tank86 and The Grand Astoria — unfurl a somewhat humble in everything but the music 15 minutes of new material. “My Guitar Will Save the Day” answers the Elder-ish vocal melody with a fervent Brant Bjork-style roll, while “Kill the Messenger” cuts the tempo for a more declarative feel and “Searchlights” takes that stomp and makes it swing to round out, some layering at the end feeling like it’s dropping hints of things to come, though one hesitates to predict momentum for a band who just got back after 11 years of silence. Still, if they’re going for it, there’s life in this material and ground to be explored from here. Concept proven. Back to work.
Plenty to hear in The Watcher‘s Cruz Del Sur-issued late-2024 debut Out of the Dark as the Boston unit — not to be confused with San Fran rockers The Watchers — unfurl the Trouble-and-Pentagram-informed take on traditionalist metal. The title-track opens and makes an energetic push while calling to mind ’80s metal in the hook, where “Strike Back” and the lead-heavy “Burning World” emphasize the metal running alongside the doom in their sound. Time for a big slowdown? You guessed it. They fall off the edge the world with “Exiled,” but rather than delve into epic Sabbathianism right then, they break into to the thrashier “The Revelator,” which only gets grittier as it goes. “Kill or Be Killed” and “The Final Hour” build on this vitality before the capper “Thy Blade, Thy Blood” saves its charge for the expected but still satisfying crescendo. Fans of Crypt Sermon and Early Moods will want to take particular note.
Each of the six inclusions on Weed Demon‘s cleverly-titled third long-player, The Doom Scroll, adds something to the mix, so while one might look at the front cover, the Columbus, Ohio, band’s moniker and general presentation and think they’re only basking in weed-worshipping dirt-riffed sludge, that’s not actually the case. Instead, “Acid Dungeon” starts off with dungeon synth foreboding before the instrumental “Tower of Smoke” lulls you into sludgenosis before “Coma Dose” brings deathlier vibes and, somewhere, a guest appearance from Shy Kennedy (ex-Horehound), “Roasting the Sacred Bones” strips back to Midwestern pummel circa 2002 in its stoned Rustbelt disaffection, “Dead Planet Blues” diverges for acoustics and the vinyl-only secret track “Willy the Pimp,” a Frank Zappa cover, closes. By the end of the record, Weed Demon are revealed as decidedly more complex than they seem to want to let on, but I suppose if you’re numbed out on whichever chemical derivative of THC it is that actually does anything, it’s all riffs one way or the other. You want THC-P, by the way. THC-A, the ‘a’ stands for “ain’t about shit.” I’m gonna guess Weed Demon know the difference.
The one-man solo-project of Jon Weisnewski (also of Sandrider, formerly of Akimbo), Nuclear Dudes released the rampaging full-length Boss Blades (review here) in 2023, glorious in both its extremity-fueled catharsis and its anti-genre fuckery. Weisnewski described the seven-song EP Compression Crimes 1 as “a synthwave album, probably,” and he might be right about that, but it’s definitely not just that. “Death at Burning Man” brings unruly techno until it lands in Mindless Self Indulgence pulsations, where “Tomb Crawler” surges near its end with metallic lashing. “Skyship” is so good at being electro-prog it’s almost obnoxious, and that too feels like the point as Weisnewski sees through creative impulses that are so much his own. Sleeper outfit, maybe. Never gonna be huge. But if you can find someone else making this kind of noise, you’re better at the internet than I am.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 14th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
As you can see on the poster below, DVNE aren’t exactly taking it easy this coming Spring. They’ll be on the road from May 1 to June 1 with festival dates thereafter as they continue to support their 2024 album, Voidkind (review here), which I’m happy as hell to have an excuse to put on this afternoon while I write about the tour.
I’ve been lucky enough to see DVNE twice over the years and if all goes according to my evil plan I’ll see them again on this run at Desertfest Oslo, and Voidkind is part of the reason I’m so much looking forward to that. As precise as DVNE are on the record, I’ve never heard them put anything to tape they couldn’t do from the stage, and so I find myself hoping very much that songs like “Eleonora” or “Sarmatæ” make it into the setlist. Fingers crossed.
I don’t know Allochiria, but given the other three who’ll be supporting DVNE along the way — Pothamus, Sunnata and Pijn — I should probably get on that.
No text list of the shows that I saw — bad for archiving, easy for social media posting; nobody thinks long-term, including me or I’d be printing ‘zines in my basement — but the poster has it and I know you’re perfectly capable of checking local listings, and so on. Here’s the announcement from socials:
⚔️ European Spring/Summer Tour Update ⚔️
More shows, tour supports & new art! We will finally play in the Balkans with shows in Ljubljana, Zagreb, Novi Sad and Sofia before we head to Greece.
Vienna—after last year’s flooding, we said we’d run it again! Excited to finally make it up to you!
We will also hit a few festivals this summer with Rock For People, Alcatraz Festival, and ArcTanGent, with more festivals to come.
Joining us along the way: ⚫️ Pothamus (Belgium & Netherlands) ⚫️ SUNNATA (Poland) ⚫️ Allochiria (Balkans & Greece) ⚫️ Pijn (Haarlem) + Local supports to be announced
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 22nd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
There was little question left between the upward trajectory of Italy’s Messa since their 2016 debut, Belfry (discussed here), the continued success and stylistic innovation of 2018’s Feast for Water (review here) and 2022’s Svart-issued Close (review here) and the consistent international touring ethic with which the band have supported and fostered their songwriting progression. They were going to end up on some ‘bigger’ label. The only question was which, and the answer is Metal Blade.
Yeah, I’m late on the news, which came through last week — ahead of the band starting their Fall European run, for which you’ll find the dates below, including the ones already passed — but I was doing a Quarterly Review, so while it still applies that I suck at this and everyone’s cooler than me, the usual blah blah, at least this time I have a reason.
So what’s next for the band? The tour they’re doing, then who knows. Maybe an early leak of some new material to build interest, or maybe they keep it all under wraps and surprise-drop an LP at some point in 2025. Let’s say probably neither and look forward to whatever comes. Here’s the PR wire’s take:
Messa Signs to Metal Blade Records!
Metal Blade is very happy to welcome Italian Doomster MESSA to it’s Worldwide roster!
MESSA play evoking doom metal with middle-eastern vibes. Deliciously haunting female vocals, 70’s guitars and Arabian Oudh combine to conjure a sound that is all of their own. With influences as diverse as Dead Can Dance, Om, Swans, Killing Joke, Electric Wizard, Thergothon, Current 93, the band has moved from the first occult then noir-tinged doom metal of their previous works to a new atmospheric mediterranean sound which is unique. The evolution is clearly showcased in their latest studio album “Close”.
MESSA emerged in the first day of 2014. Marco and Sara started to develop the basic concept while writing the first songs. Later on, Alberto and Rocco joined the band. The extreme diversity of their musical background immediately proved to be essential in the construction of the band’s sound. In 2016 their first opus “Belfry” was released, and the band made several tours across Europe and USA. In 2018 their second work “Feast For Water” brought the band on tour even more extensively. Their latest studio work “Close”, released in 2022, was acclaimed by critics. Some appearances made by the band were Hellfest Open Air, Roadburn, and Desert Fest. The band’s latest record Live At Roadburn was released April 7th 2023, offering their main-stage triumph, joined by a unique constellation of musicians and instruments. Seeming to both embrace and defy everything it means to be a metal band, MESSA mesh Mediterranean sounds with crushing doom riffs, with an emphasis on atmosphere and unusual use of instrumentation.
Comments MESSA: “We’re glad to announce we’ve joined forces with legendary Metal Blade Records. We are beyond stoked to become part of the incredible legacy of this label, marking their catalog with our music. Since 1982 Metal Blade has put fundamental metal artists on the map, and being in this labels’ roster is a big honor for us. We can’t wait to share some glimpses of what we are working on! In the meantime you can catch our live shows in the following European cities, list below.”
MESSA live 2024: Thursday 17/10/2024 CH Martigny Sunset Friday 18/10/2024 DE Freiburg Artik Club Saturday 19/10/2024 DE Braunschweig Kufa Haus Sunday 20/10/2024 BE Antwerp Desertfest Monday 21/10/2024 DE Aachen AZ Tuesday 22/10/2024 DE Berlin Cassiopeia Wednesday 23/10/2024 PL Warsaw VooDoo Thursday 24/10/2024 PL Poznan 2Progi Friday 25/10/2024 DE Chemnitz AJZ Saturday 26/10/2024 DE Hamburg Lazy Bones Sunday 27/10/2024 NL Maastricht Samhain Festival Saturday 9/11/2024 ITA Catania Catania Tattoo convention Friday 13/12/2024 AT Linz Kapu Saturday 14/12/2024 DE Stuttgart Hellgart Festival
MESSA line-up: Sara – vocals Marco – guitars/bass Alberto – guitars Rocco – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 16th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
In addition to slots among the enviable lineups for Desertfest Belgium in Antwerp and Damnation in Manchester, UK, and other fests besides, Boston dark atmospheric noise metallers Morne will bring their brutalist heraldry to Europe for a full round of touring through the bulk of October. There are a couple TBA dates, and if you heard last year’s Engraved With Pain (review here) and you’re feeling up for a bit of methodical destruction, by all means get in on the action. Just because they’re absolutely crushing live doesn’t mean they won’t be grateful.
Tickets are on sale now at the Linktree, and the band posted the following update on socials with that and the routing. Have at it:
We return to Europe for the second time this year. Come and share those nights with us, buy merch support live music in any way you can. We hope to see you on the road. Cheers.
The band states: “We are preparing for our second trip to Europe this year. We will play a few festivals and a bunch of club shows. It’s a very busy season for touring bands and we would to encourage people to support us on this trip. Come to shows, buy merch and enjoy live music. We appreciate you all. Cheers!”
12-10-2024 – Nijmegen (NL) – Soulcrusher 14-10-2024 – Gdansk (PL) – Wydział Remontowy 15-10-2024 – Warsaw (PL) – Hydrozagadka 16-10-2024 – Poznan (PL) – Pod Minogą 17-10-2024 – Berlin (DE) – Reset Club 18-10-2024 – Leipzig (DE) – Bandhaus 19-10-2024 – Weimar (DE) – Gerber 3 20-10-2024 – Antwerp (BE) – Desertfest 21-10-2024 – Kassel (DE) – Goldgrube 22-10-2024 – Salzburg (AT) – Rockhouse 23-10-2024 – Ljubiljana (SI) – Klub Gromka 24-10-2024 – TBA 25-10-2024 – Bern (CH) – Reitschulen Festival 26-10-2024 – Montpellier (FR) – Ex Tenebris Festival 27-10-2024 – TBA 28-10-2024 – Paris (FR) – TBA 29-10-2024 – Lille (FR) – La Malterie 30-10-2024 – Leeds (UK) – Boom 31-10-2024 – Glasgow (UK) – Classic Grand 01-11-2024 – Manchester (UK) – Damnation Festival
MORNE: Milosz Gassan – Guitar, Vocals Paul Rajpal – Guitar Morgan Coe – Bass Billy Knockenhauer – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 29th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I guess I posted these dates already, except for the last two this Fall in Louisville, Kentucky, and Sacramento, California. To those I’ll also add spots at Desertfest New York 2024 the weekend of Sept. 12-14 and Ripplefest Texas Sept. 19-22, so it’s safe to assume that even after they wrap up the stint they’ll begin this week supporting Baroness, then head to Europe barely a week after they probably get back home from the last show in Des Moines, Boston’s Gozu still won’t be done putting in road time in support of their 2023 album, Remedy (review here). Recall they were out earlier this Spring with The Obsessed and Howling Giant as well.
Why hit it so hard? Well, for one thing they can, and ain’t none of us getting any younger — except perhaps that Joe Grotto on bass — but on the most basic level, they very obviously believe in what they’re doing or tours like this wouldn’t happen. I doubt they’re making bank, even if they’re breaking even, but 10 days on this part of this continent, another 10 over there for that part of that one, it adds up, and if you’re gonna do the thing, do it. If the last three (four? five?) Gozu LPs have taught us anything, isn’t it that Gozu aren’t screwing around? Well, here they are, more than 15 years after their debut, going for it.
So yeah, I posted the dates before. The run with Baroness starts Friday. I may yet put the dates up again before then, just to emphasize the point.
For now:
GOZU To Support Baroness On Select US Shows; Tickets On Sale Now
Boston rock outfit GOZU will support Baroness on select dates of the band’s upcoming US run. GOZU will appear on the tour from May 31st in Portland, Maine through June 10th in Des Moines, Iowa. The journey follows GOZU’s recent US Spring tour with The Obsessed and Howling Giant. Additionally, the band will appear on this year’s edition of Louder Than Life in September and Aftershock in October.
Comments vocalist/guitarist Marc Gaffney, “Just came off an amazing tour with Howling Giant and The Obsessed. Now, hitting the road with Baroness. GOZU would like to make a public announcement: Caress before you dress.”
Tickets are on sale now. See all confirmed dates below.
GOZU w/ Baroness 5/31/2024 The State Theatre – Portland, ME 6/01/2024 District Music Hall – Norwalk, CT 6/02/2024 Essex – Rochester, NY 6/04/2024 The Pyramid Scheme – Grand Rapids, MI 6/05/2024 The Vogue – Indianapolis, IN 6/07/2024 Majestic Theatre – Madison, WI 6/08/2024 Durty Nellie’s – Palatine, IL 6/09/2024 House Of Blues – Chicago, IL 6/10/2024 Wooly’s – Des Moines, IA End Tour
GOZU Euro Tour 2024 TU. 18.06.24 IT BOLOGNA FREAKOUT WE. 19.06.24 IT VERONA FINE DI MONDO TH. 20.06.24 AT KUFSTEIN KULTURFABRIK FR. 21.06.24 DE MÜNSTER RARE GUITAR SA. 22.06.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** SU. 23.06.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** MO. 24.06.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** TU. 25.06.24 FR CHAMBERY BRIN DE ZINC WE. 26.06.24 FR ***OPEN SLOT*** TH. 27.06.24 FR ***OPEN SLOT*** FR. 28.06.24 FR CLISSON HELLFEST
GOZU Fall Dates: 9/29/2024 Louder Than Life @ Highland Festival Grounds – Louisville, KY 10/13/2024 Aftershock @ Discovery Park – Sacramento, CA
GOZU is: Marc Gaffney – guitar and vocals Joe Grotto – bass Doug Sherman – lead guitar Seth Botos – drums
Voidkind is the third full-length from Edinburgh-based five-piece DVNE and their second to be issued with the historically-significant endorsement of Metal Blade Records behind 2021’s Etemen Ænka (review here) and sees the heavy, progressive metallers reaching for and attaining new levels of refinement in terms of craft. In intensity, melody, ambience and impact, Voidkind (cover art by Felix Abel Klae) weaves its 10 tracks together across nearly an hour’s runtime that is so clearly meant to be taken in its entirety and only benefits from having enough arrogance to demand the listener’s attention for its span despite earning it with the songs themselves.
And as to those songs. They are dynamic in tempo, volume, the arrangements of vocals from Daniel Barter (also guitar live), keyboardist Maxime Keller and guitarist/keyboardist Victor Vicart, and the hairpin rhythmic turns of bassist/guitarist Allan Paterson (Alexandros Keros also contributes bass on stage) and drummer Dudley Tait, the latter with a performance that could and probably should be a blueprint on how to accompany younger-Mastodon-style angular riffing without overplaying. Working with returning producer Graeme Young on the recording and mix (Robyn Dawson assisted engineering) and the also-returning Magnus Lindberg (Domkraft, Vokonis, Wren, countless others, plus his own band) for the master, the pieces that comprise Voidkind resonate with scope and narrative, and as deep as you want to dig into the references and vocabulary of the lyrics, DVNE will meet you there for lines like “Synesthetic submergence saturates the mind,” from “Abode of the Perfect Soul” or “The zephyrian scents of verbena” from “Eleonora” earlier as the band dig in following the more bombastic, willfully aggressive opener “Summa Blasphemia.”
Like the lyrics, the instrumental arrangements feel plotted, worked on, and thoughtful of the linear thread that brings the songs together and the intended flow across Voidkind as a whole. “Summa Blasphemia” takes about nine seconds for its surge to sweep in, but from that point on, DVNE‘s sense of control is complete in the turn that introduces the record’s first soaring, melodic, emotive vocals at about the one-minute mark so they can gradually come together in the apex with the harsher growls and screams that pervade amid all the ensuing crush, and in the way “Reliquary” moves from its solo section to the ambient break that begins its second-half build, in the subtle atmospheric flourish of interludes “Path of Dust” (led by guitar) and “Path of Ether” (more of a keyboard/synth drone) and how they surround “Sarmatæ” even on the 2LP edition of the album, giving that song’s memorable lines about casting tales and ribbons into fire space to breathe before the rush start of “Abode of the Perfect Soul” renews the onslaught en route to the closing pair of the lushly post-metallic “Plērōma” and the near-10-minute finale “Cobalt Sun Necropolis,” which feels like nothing so much as a next-generation’s nodding back as its last crescendo is blown out in a mode not dissimilar from Neurosis‘ “Stones From the Sky” at the finish.
There are arguments to be made for and against what seems from outside to be such a deeply cerebral take, but at more than 10 years’ remove from their debut EP, Progenitor (review here), DVNE know who they are in terms of sound, and Voidkind comes through as all the more sculpted and literary in its ambitions for their efforts, and as they stand in the center of the tumult in “Eleonora” or bring together the airier float of guitar on “Reaching for Telos” with layered vocal harmonies as yet another example of their growth as a unit, the complexity is a strength. They’re never lost in it. They never forget where they just came from or lose track of where they’re going, how it fits, or why. As a listener, Voidkind is exciting even on a first impression because of its charge, its aggro throb, its stops and starts and twists that toy with adrenaline and pull you deeper into the material, but the reason any of it works at all is the emergent mastery of songwriting DVNE have been chasing for the last decade-plus.
So is Voidkind an arrival moment? Sure, and you wouldn’t have been wrong to say the same of Etemen Ænka or 2017’s debut LP, Asheran, either. At the very least, it’s a landmark for them along their path of continued evolution, but I also can’t seem to get out of my head the notion of placing it in the broader sphere of metal. Part of that might just be that DVNE sound fresh in their ideas of what heavy sounds can convey, whether fast or slow, loud or quiet, dissonant, melodic, etc., but Voidkind only gets more difficult to categorize the more one hears it. With the level of consideration put in and the somewhat heady vibes throughout, it’s only fair to call it progressive despite how much it uses raw ferocity to make its case, and while it might owe a debt of influence to post-hardcore, post-metal, sludge, and doom, it’s not just any one of those things. Familiar in parts, but imaginative and distinguished in its point of view.
Metal, as a genre, has splintered since the dawn of the internet such that, if someone were describing a band as “metal,” it would tell you almost nothing about the character of what you’re hearing other than it’s probably loud and potentially unspeakably dumb. Is DVNE metal? Is Pantera? Tool? Five Finger Death Punch (who are the worst band I’ve ever seen and I will say so every time I mention them)? Korn? Black Sabbath? You can get debate for the rest of your life about what is or isn’t metal, musically or as a lifestyle, without even a coherent definition to work from, and given the emotional attachment of those in the subculture to it and a long-held mistrust when those from outside — i.e., the broader pop-cultural sphere — deign to acknowledge its existence, that’s not likely to change. So what is metal and what should it be? I promise you I have no idea and I wouldn’t be so pretentious as to make any declaration in that regard even if I did. But if DVNE were the shape of metal to come, I have a hard time seeing how metal could be anything but better for it.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 24th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Fresh off their month-long stint in March and April supporting The Obsessed, Boston heavy soul pushers Gozu last week unveiled the thus-far confirmed European dates leading up to their appearance at Hellfest in France this June, and wouldn’t you know, before I even managed to get that posted here, they followed up this week by announcing they’ll join Baroness and Poison Ruin for the East Coast and Midwestern portion of their own summer tour before they go abroad. Hot damn, is the bottom line.
Gozu are no strangers to time on the road — they were last in Europe in 2022 by my count, but don’t quote me on that — but they do seem to have hit it with marked purpose since releasing their stunner of a fifth long-player, Remedy (review here) last Spring, and with no shortage of cause to do so in the intensity of that collection. So much the better for them to head over again, and of course, if you’re in a position to help them with the open slots listed below, I encourage you do do so both as part of a general ethic of supporting underground bands on the tour, and because it’s the kind of gig you’ll be proud to have been a part of afterward.
And as a word to the wise, they’re very likely not done. They’ve already been confirmed for Desertfest New York (Sept. 12-14) and Ripplefest Texas (Sept. 19-22), Louder Than Life in Kentucky (Sept. 26-29) and Aftershock in Sacramento, CA (Oct. 10-13). Don’t be surprised if and when a tour comes to cover at least part of the travel in that stretch. Did I already mention “hot damn?”
I may not get to a ton of shows these days, and I had pangs missing the NYC date that capped the tour they just ended, but it warms my heart to see these guys getting out and putting their music in people’s faces where it belongs.
The below is cobbled together from Heavy Psych Sounds (their Euro booker) on the PR wire, Gozu‘s social media, and Baroness‘ website:
Hey all, we are stoked to announce that our US heavy rockers GOZU will tour Europe this Summer !!!
STILL FEW OPEN SLOTS
BOOK YOUR SHOW – WRITE TO: info@heavypsychsounds.com
GOZU Euro Tour 2024 TU. 18.06.24 IT BOLOGNA FREAKOUT WE. 19.06.24 IT VERONA FINE DI MONDO TH. 20.06.24 AT KUFSTEIN KULTURFABRIK FR. 21.06.24 DE MÜNSTER RARE GUITAR SA. 22.06.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** SU. 23.06.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** MO. 24.06.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** TU. 25.06.24 FR CHAMBERY BRIN DE ZINC WE. 26.06.24 FR ***OPEN SLOT*** TH. 27.06.24 FR ***OPEN SLOT*** FR. 28.06.24 FR CLISSON HELLFEST
Something wicked this way comes!!
GOZU w/ BARONESS & POISON RUIN: May 31 | Portland, ME | State Theatre Jun 01 | Norwalk, CT | District Music Hall Jun 02 | Rochester, NY | Essex Jun 04 | Grand Rapids, MI | Pyramid Scheme Jun 05 | Indianapolis, IN | The Vogue Jun 07 | Madison, WI | Majestic Theatre Jun 08 | Palatine, IL | Durty Nellie’s Jun 09 | Chicago, IL | House of Blues Jun 10 | Des Moines, IA | Wooly’s
GOZU is: Marc Gaffney – guitar and vocals Joe Grotto – bass Doug Sherman – lead guitar Seth Botos – drums
