Self-Released
Release Date: 06.12.24
Running Time: 42:40
Review by Dark Juan
Score: 10^18/10
Hello, dear hearts. Dark Juan here and I am still writing absolute nonsense for you to completely ignore for at least three hundred words, at which point I will get into talking about the music. Today has had me variously ruminating upon the fact that it has been a bit of a shitter of a year as far as matters within my family are concerned (one nearly died and another has lost a leg) and despite having upped my remuneration at work by over 50% in the last year, I don’t seem to be any better off thanks to the delights of Tory fiscal policy and rampant inflation. Hopefully this may change in the near future, but I am not holding my breath. However, there are some pluses, in a rampant departure from my usual negative frame of mind. I have made a shit ton of new friends thanks to music, and am now (somewhat bizarrely as I am UK-based) involved in a thing called the Midwest Doom Coalition in America, which are trying to form a collective of sorts to promote and be a mutually beneficial system for booking acts and getting them some coverage in zines and whatnot as well as each band in there helping each other out. One wonders whether a similar system might be advantageous in the UK. Also, the Schwerer Gothikpanzer has returned to the road after being repaired and for this I am most grateful as I don’t like public transport. I have warmth and love and comfort and a full belly and lots of toys, so all in all I am blessed.
2024 has also been an extraordinary year for Metal and other Extreme music. I have been more than usually spoiled for choice for amazing bands this year. Indeed, it has been a year like no other for the sheer amount of ridiculously good releases. Take Vosforis, for example. They only got 7/10 for a record that was easily a 9/10 any other year because the standard has been that ridiculously high. Ignore the fuck out of Gene Simmons and his repeated assertions that Rock is dead. It isn’t. It has just changed and he’s an old man more concerned with cheapening one of the greatest Hard Rock bands there has ever been’s legacy and turning it into a fucking pantomime for even more money which he does not require.
Now that rant is out of the way, let me please introduce you to Nantes, France-based duo Dragunov, whose album “VEPR” is currently spinning dangerously upon the Platter of Splatter ™. These two French gentlemen are interesting as they are a guitar and drums duo, with the guitar also being used for basslines. They are normally an instrumental band but they have occasional vocals – for example on ‘The Great Hour’ which features the tortured throat of Stefan De Graaf, and is a mighty fucking boulder of Metal – lined rock that is dropped straight on to your unsuspecting head, leaving you crushed to a noisome mass of human slurry in short order.
Dragunov describe themselves as Post – Metal, which I would agree with as their music takes the forms of Post-Punk, being slow and drawn-out soundscapes instead of short and sharp jabs to the solar plexus, and the listening experience is rather less on the listening and more on the experience. Shoegaze and Drone feature strongly in the sound of Dragunov (who have taken their name from the famous precision rifle of Russian manufacture) which is inspired by the reported horrors of the Soviet system (although the title of this album, “VEPR”, is also the name of a Ukrainian made assault rifle, fact fans!) and the music is influenced by the likes of Cult of Luna and Russian Circles as they meld together massive riffs and dark elements in their sound and make noise like the sound of a Russian Mechanised Regiment on the march.
Although cacophonous and colossal, this is not to say that Dragunov are without subtlety – ‘Orange’ takes the sound of contemporary Metal and shoves it through a meatgrinder and the result is a deeply unsettling piece of music that chops between Nu-Metal and Math Metal in a disturbing way, and this forms a counterpoint to the droning, endlessly torturous soundscapes they normally employ, such as on ‘Bialowieza’, which is like a production line for humans to be turned into meat products.
Considering that this album only has two people playing on it, the sound design and production is… well, frankly heavy as fuck. Heavier than the battleship Potemkin filled with a ballast of sturdy Russian women all called Svetlana. Heavier than an event horizon of Olgas. Everything can be heard with superb clarity and the compositions are interesting and not dull, even at their most drawn out and droning. Sébastien uses his guitar as both weapon and musical instrument, either laying down heavy suppressive fire in the shape of staccato, chopping riffs, or lulling the listener into a false sense of security with gentle, expressive playing. Tristan’s drums are the same as he can pummel the skins and make them sound like a walking artillery barrage or use them to great effect simply as an instrument to accent and embellish the guitar.
I have said it before and I am going to say it again, the French Extreme music scene is one of the most vibrant, avant-garde and original out there at the moment. The wealth of absolutely jaw dropping music coming from France at the moment is staggering, and Dragunov are right at the forefront of it. This is yet another essential French Metal album.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System (Le système breveté de notation des éclaboussures de sang de Dark Juan, pour mes bons amis d'outre-Manche en France et au-delà, partout où l'on parle français, que ce soit au Canada, en Suisse ou ailleurs. Bonjour depuis le Royaume-Uni, où nous ne sommes pas tous de gros ivrognes ou grossiers et agressifs tout le temps. Enfin, je le suis peut-être. Mais de toute façon, la musique extrême qui sort en France en ce moment est absolument merveilleuse et je vous en remercie tous, et que Dieu soit loué, la vie en France (ou plutôt en Bretagne) me manque tellement!) awards Dragunov and their Soviet-inspired Post – Metal 10^18/10.
TRACKLISTING:
Mahkno
Holodomor
The Great Hour (featuring Stefan De Graaf)
Bialowieza
Orange (featuring Vincent Barbaud)
2402
Alligator
LINE-UP:
Tristan Monein - Drums
Sébastien Pineau – Guitar
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