One of the biggest misconceptions is that metalheads aren’t completely huge nerds. Take for instance the UK outfit DVNE, who offer up a powerful blend of progressive metal, sludge, and psychedelia that is largely based on the writings of Frank Herbert. Their Bandcamp URL is even Songs From Arrakis.

But however nerdy they may be, there’s nothing wimpy or asthmatic about them. Voidkind, their third full-length, is a display of power worthy of Shai Hulud himself.

I had previously acquainted myself to DVNE through their second (and currently-out-of-budget) album Asheran, a proggy, psych-metal sojourn that felt like Elder in the desert. And so this record felt a bit too abrasive for me at first. The opening track “Summa Blasphemia” leans more on the death side of the death-doom that they’ve flirted with on their heaviest moments. On my first listen, I turned it off after a minute or so and texted a friend saying, “I prefer doomy DVNE to deathy DVNE.”

But I gave it another shot later in the day, and with my expectations more appropriately tempered, Voidkind opened into a powerful record. Its scope is as vast as Arrakis itself. Odd-timed riffs and Eastern-tinged melodies mix to create an enormous sound that lives somewhere between Mahavishnu Orchestra doing prog metal and Paradise Lost using Arabic scales. Vocals are split just about evenly between screams and clean melodies, both with the same power. Ambient passages connect heavy moments like spice-induced dreams between battles.

It definitely still scratches the Elder itch that Asheran did, but a few shades more muscular, and with a clearer focus. There are plenty of instrumental passages, but they don’t meander as much as they march with a clear, warlike purpose. Long live the fighters indeed.