The RMR review pipe of early 2023 seems to attract all types of abstract or out-of-the-box pieces. Records that usually should not co-exist with all that metal over here. But somehow, they still do. Funky, huh? But – you see – comfortable metal tropes are good for the soul. Yet sometimes you need to push the boundaries until you meet the glitch. Kvltish technocrats brutally unchained!
Back in 2017, Vvon Dogma I‘s Communion fascinated us in a geeky yet disturbing kind of way. This one was so out of the box, it almost didn’t make it onto our review pipe. And yet. The EP still felt like an uncut diamond whelped on a 9-string bass, though. Something that wasn’t quite refined enough. The RMR crew had to wait for some 6 years until the proof of the pudding finally arrived. And the outcome is as captivating as it is often disturbingly bizarre.
Already The Kvlt of Glitch‘s androgynous artwork makes you think of AI-generated electronic music with vocals in weird falsetto tones. That’s of course far from the truth, but – you kinda get the gist. After all, you get an extravagant bonanza of ChaotH‘s unceasing tapfest and Blaise Borboën‘s violin whine or pulsating synths that suddenly appear out of nowhere. Savvy progressive vibes wrapped in subtle electronica and vibrant guitar eruptions often form that background necessary to hold that maniacal complexity in one piece. More or less. And then – all of a sudden – Vvon Dogma I‘s tune leads off into some outstanding coherent chorus with something resembling groove. But make no mistake, these easy moments won’t last long. Your senses will soon be overwhelmed all over again by wild sampling from interdimensional space.
The record’s style of bass-infected prog is so avant-garde that it risks making olde masters like Haken turn yellow with envy.1 Ditch the ever-present djentology, put the bass on fire, and embrace the power of the holy synth. That kind of thing. Boy, more than once I had the sinking feeling to find myself in an alternate universe full of sugary sweet pseudo K-Pop figures. Wispy visions of pinkish and unspeakable – things that should not exist but still might. That sounds so quantum foam, I’m not sure what futuristic world we finally arrived in.
Another quirk is that no real vox shall touch The Kult of Glitch. Robotic vocals – yet again aligned to that wretched album cover – howl at you from every direction. But it fits nonetheless, doesn’t it? After all, Vvon Dogma I masterfully create this multidimensional feeling (Hivemind). That sentiment to be stuck helplessly somewhere in a glitch, a sound-filled void that fell through the cracks of a usually well-organized structure.
Ultimately though, The Kvlt of Glitch made me often think of the matrix expressed in soundwaves. Highly technical metal, thriving as much on buoyant avant-garde complexity as it likes to explore different styles all at once. And I admit it, the RMR crew was pretty smitten with ChaotH‘s bass prowess. Boy, we even forgive them the Radiohead cover for 2+2=5 that finally convinced us with its spaced-out splendor. This glitch here is so far out of the box it might as well reside in another galaxy somewhere. A pretty alien experience of avant-garde prog that has yet to find equals. AI-sounding metal made by humans.
Vvon Dogma I – we salute ye. That’s one stellar kvltish performance. Now get us down from orbit, we start feeling like Major Tom up here.
Ed’s note: And – drumroll – the record’s made it onto our 2023 Top Ten list. Congrats!
Record Rating: 9/10 | Label: Self-Released | Web: Facebook (band)
Release Date: 5 May 2023
- The RMR reviewers are still trying to knock some sense into Haken’s latest. Perhaps later, right?-↩