Music / Reviews
Review: Dvne/Pijn, Crofters Rights
OK, so it’s hardly the biggest venue in town, but the fact that this show has been sold out for weeks surely indicates that Edinburgh prog-metallers Dvne are ready for larger stages.
First up are Mancunian post-metal sextet Pijn, who prove to be a very pleasant surprise indeed. Cello and violin are woven into their rhythmically imaginative, mostly instrumental, atmospheric sound, with the latter frequently used as a lead instrument.
Old-school proggers and fans of the likes of Nordic Giants should find much to enjoy here, if they can handle the doom metal underpinning. They speak not a word to the audience, so we don’t even know how they pronounce their name (I’m rooting for ‘Pigeon’).
Science fiction-obsessed Dvne are probably fed up with being compared to Mastodon. But, hey, there are worse comparisons for a band to suffer than with the leading lights in their chosen genre. It’s all there in the opening songs, Towers and Court of the Matriarch, both drawn from their excellent recent Etemen Ænka album: intricate melodic guitar interplay, layered with keyboards and superlative drumming, taking in both brutal and delicate paasages.
Crowd favourite Si-XIV gets a sea of heads banging after its lengthy keyboard intro. This is not the kind of music one normally expects to hear on Stokes Croft, especially on a Friday night, but the ArcTanGent tribe are out in force. If there’s a weak point, it’s the vocals, especially the ‘clean’ ones, but that’s hardly unusual at the outer limits of ambitious stoner/prog-metal. That said, their sound already seems way too big for the back room of a pub. Watch them soar as they transcend the metal underground.
Read more: Metal & Prog Picks: April 2023
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