I saw Dvne play live in 2018, and recall it being a very dark experience of thunderous heaviness and post metal doom. Reading about them travelling “an epic dark sci-fi universe with hints of psychedelia” sounds about right. I also read the word “dense”, which corresponded to my experience of the band’s style of play. This album, the band’s second, is about “inequalities and the human relationship with power”.
Power and drama are at the centre of Dvne’s output. Stylistically it’s a mixed bag. Dark and retro sludge-stoner is integral but so too are progressive passages. It’s kind of like Cult of Luna meeting the progressive side of Persefone. “Towers” features the darkest post metal sludge but breaks away into twisty guitar movement, and heightened drama, enhanced by distant vocals, a keyboard element and lingering guitar passages. It’s a complex affair. The clean vocals could be stronger, I felt, in the haunting “Court of the Matriarch” but I guess they are the message which I found hard to grasp, so strong and varied is the accompaniment. When the music is dark, it is truly dark and heavy, but atmospheres change and we are treated to misty passages in amongst it all. I have to hand it to Dvne – they don’t hold back. But I sensed an unending battle going on between the heavy sound and the distinctly progressive waves within it. “Court of the Matriarch” is an intriguing listen and I wasn’t sure where it was going to lead me. Its ending was supremely powerful, aided by the deep sound of the keyboard. It is the keyboard which starts off “Weighing of the Heart Beat”, pulsing its waves as we hear distorted sounds and echoed spoken words around it. This little breather is a prelude to the more substantial “Omega Severer”. Dvne once again juxtapose dark and light, storm and calm in both instrumentals and vocals. Reflections blend with harsh post metal darkness. “Omega Severer” reminded me a lot in style of At the Soundawn’s “Shifting”. At the Soundawn are generally considered “alternative”. So are Dvne. From this we head into a void and back to the electronic pulse. Where are we now? The sensation of “SI-XIV” is of an epic and harsh journey, with the softer vocals and on the following “Mieccha” providing the emotion and commentary along the lines of Persefone’s Miguel. I didn’t really appreciate that mix so much but I did like the way that “Mieccha” ascends and re-ascends into majestic territory. The subtlety of the dark light fusion however continued to be a little lost on me, I have to confess. “Asphodel” then challenges us further. It is a cross between a cosmic journey and a folk hymn. It blends into the final piece “Satuya”, rising like post metal but infused with a rhythmic line, and then rather than passing though layered phases as is typical of this album as a whole, reinforcing the power before fading out into the cosmos.
Without doubt Dvne have creativity. They throw everything into “Etemen Ænka”.
I found it an interesting album musically but it has so much varied content that for me it was a mystifying and even confusing journey where I lost my sense of direction.
(6.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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