Review: “Self-titled” by DVSR

Old school review from July 2017 in a different format to the usual reviews we’ve been putting out. Kind of a Throwback review to bring us up to date on DVSR’s material as the band will be playing UK Tech-Fest this summer as their first UK/EU show!

DVSR (prenounced “Devistator”) are a Djent rap metal band from Australia. They were introduced to be by a friend as for fans of Hacktivist and while I can see the comparison, it doesn’t necessarily ring true. While Matthew Youkhana’s rap style vocal is remenisant of Jay Hurley in places, that’s pretty much where the comparison ends. DVSR don’t stick to traditional song structures (intro, bridge, chorus, bridge, verse and so on), instead the choruses tend to be repeated lines or words as Matthew Youkhana tells a story rather than sings a song. There are no clean or unclean vocals – rapping only. The music doesn’t make any allowances for the vocal either – you could take Matthew Youkhana out of the picture where entirely and replace him with say Spencer Sotelo from Periphery doing clean and unclean vocals and you wouldn’t be any the wiser. Whereas a band like Volumes plays to the strength of their vocalists, writing songs to their strengths, DVSR have gone the opposite way and put the vocals over the top of their pre-written music. There is no turn table action or programmed beats or DJing, which is actually really good. The guitar work is spot on with technical Djent adding breakdowns and grooves to the mix. “Fatal Attraction” is the story of a broken relationship and the lyrics are as hard hitting as the music. [8/10]