EP Review: DVRK – Infinite Reminiscence (Season of Mist)
French deathcore band, DVRK, release their debut EP, Infinite Reminiscence, on the 7th of June via Season of Mist.
Since their inception in 2019, DVRK has crafted a unique blend of Deathcore, Nu Metal, and Bass music. Formed at first as a solo project, DVRK evolved naturally into the dynamic 5 piece they are today. Hard work and dedication has seen them make waves in the industry and seen them collaborate with artists such as Conquer Divide, Cove Reber, Chunk No Captain Chunk, and Hyro The Hero. Their recent signing to Season of Mist sees them hit another significant milestone, heralding the launch of their vivid musical expedition and leading to this first release on the label, Infinite Reminiscence.
This debut EP comes with six tracks exploring themes ranging from personal struggle to macabre narrative, and totaling 17.42 minutes of high-intensity soundscapes. This represents not just an auditory experience but a deep-dive into the emotional vicissitudes of life itself, produced and polished to perfection at Nalcon Studio by Matt Thomas of Ashtone Audio.
DVRK is Peter Morgan on vocals, Bastien Deleule and Gérald Audiard on guitars, Fabien Letren on bass, and Vincent Vidal on drums.
DVRK hit us with 6 tracks and near 18 minutes of music here so we aren’t getting into anything overly long and it all gets underway with the opener, Distant Roads. Crunchy and in your face, with a layer of electronica, there is little time to hang around. The core vocals are harsh and aggressive with a little variation in depth and tone. Drums are fiery and the riffs pound. It’s strong deathcore with the moments of backing lines delivering moments of synth and effects as well as a touch of melody which is enough to offer another layer of interest and intrigue. I like the power in the vocals a lot and the drums certainly stand out.
Breathless is an interesting one. Dark and meaty with distorted riffs and malicious intent but with verses that lean a bit more on the bass music style. I wasn’t sure whether to dance or two step – maybe it’ll need to be both. DVRK don’t let up though, keeping it large and and in your face, just playing around with slight variations in tone, a bit of a breakdown and plenty of additional backing vocals to offer multidimensional harsh vocals.
The Secret has some really neat guitar pinching in the intro before dropping down a little into almost a clean vocal and catchy drums. That lasts just for a moment before the crunch arrives. What can I say that OI haven’t already – it’s hard and heavy, relentless in pace and assault and filled with intensity. DVRK sound pissed off and it pours out of the speakers, making you want to snarl and kick something or someone. They manage to not fall into the trap of repetition yet though by just offering moments of uniqueness on each song and here it comes through a slow down , some sampled spoken word, before rushing back in at us for a slower, meatier verse.
Paco brings the echo in a big way in the intro but also brings faded vocals and a superb melody. I really like that and how the guitar sits above even the vocals which come with lots of variation but faded and echoing in the background. It does explode into life after a while but keeps the melodic, almost epic tone and feel. The melody stays prominent, though now sharing the front with the immense vocals. This is a clever song, really listenable, yet still intensely heavy, it flows wonderfully and is very engaging and hypnotising. It’s easily my favourite track on Infinite Reminiscence.
Colors brings us out of our hypnotised and melodic state, shaking us back to life aggressively with a song to destroy mosh pits. Its extended guitar wave in the intro would give enough time to prepare the crowd before it crunches into life, bringing plenty of groove and beat with it’s thick drums and technical riffing. Its a song that doesn’t mess about too much – it’s just there to let loose to and that’s fine with me.
Infinite Reminiscence closes with F.A.M. The wavy intro is quite rich sounding with a nice effect line in the background but with the insanely catchy drums leading the charge. Vocals come in and rip harder than they have so far, and they have already been hard. It all gets quite frenetic, chaotic even but just as you feel it is descending too far, the drums come back and restore a touch of order. Sampled sirens in the background are a little distracting and it does lay off the intensity for a slightly odd dance beat section which I could happily do without. To their credit though, it acts as a nice foil to the returning heaviness that closes the EP out.
Infinite Reminiscence is an interesting EP and DVRK clearly have a lot going for them. They capture a very modern sound and are clearly packed with plenty of talent and creativity in the band. The 6 tracks, though short, show quite a wide variety of ideas though, at their core, it’s good old deathcore. Around that though, whether through bass beats, samples, tone changes, speed and tempo drops and melody, there is more than enough to give every single song an identity of its own. Props to the drummer too, there are some wicked beats here and also to the vocalist who has real power in his lungs. DVRK have impressed me here. I don’t adore all of the different elements all of the time but Infinite Reminiscence is jam packed full of top quality metal that is sure to capture the imagination and ignite mosh pits everywhere.
You can preorder and presave DVRK’s Infinite Reminiscence at this link tree.
DVRK Links:
Bandcamp – Facebook – Instagram – TikTok – X – Spotify – Apple Music
Author
DVRK - Infinite Reminiscence (Season of Mist)
By Artist: DVRK
Album name: Infinite Reminiscence
-
The Final Score - 8/10
8/10
