Band info
Band: Dvster
Album: Hexenwerk
Released: August 21st, 2024.
Genre: back punk, dungeon synth.
Location: Germany.
Review
Today we present you a charming little discovery from this wonderful cabinet of oddities that is independent black metal. Germany-based project Dvster may be one of the most surprising variations of this long-known musical direction.
This small, four track EP has merely a playtime of 15 minutes, but at every corner there is a new element. While strongly leaning into raw black metal with heavy punk and crust influences, Dvster is at no point afraid to take some influences from the most uncommon places. Clean vocals in the best singer-songwriter style, straight-up punk riffs and even bass-driven trap beats, for some reason, can find themselves only seconds apart from each other. And as unusual the instrumentals are, as unusual are the lyrics: Most of the times screamed and distorted, sometimes sung and even if presented under heavy autotune, between old samples from movie classics, the head behind this project, Mükke, writes his metaphors about gender dysmorphia, lord of the rings and isolation directly and less ritualized than your usual raw bm band.
Showing even a pinch humour in concept and title on tracks such as “Sommer, Sonne, Raufasertapete” the actual motives always stay bitter and desperate, layered on top of programmed drum computer-blast beats, gnarly guitars and easygoing lofi synths before breaking out of their metal corset. Especially noteworthy is the track “Die Hexe” which does not even bother to present anything that could be called “trve” but instead starts with danceable licks and electronic parts before breaking into atmospheric guitars underlining a movie sample about the “Entartung” of a musician in Nazi-Germany, rounding up the lyrics about the desolation and exclusion of this witch hunt.
To be honest, there were rarely releases this raw, that were as much fun to listen to as this little EP. At least to our reviewer. (It also is an absolute recommendation to antifascist comrades who find themselves in the misery of swaying to some Eisregen tracks now and then)
Other links and platforms:
Bandcamp: https://dvster1.bandcamp.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dvster_bm/