Live Review: Dvne - Waterfront, Norwich
4th May 2025
Support: As Living Arrows
Words & Photos: Tom Atkin
Back again to the local tonight, This time for Scottish formed, and French fronted, metal band DVNE supported by As Living Arrows. It is a bit of a slow fill night tonight, but people are steadily coming in non the less.
As Living Arrows are first up, and they waste no time in pulling the room into their world. With no flashy intro or over-the-top stage presence, they just start, clean guitar tones stretching out across the room before being swallowed up by big, weighty riffs. It’s metal that isn’t afraid to get messy, ambient passages crashing into bursts of hardcore dirty noise.
I wasn’t sold on them initially, whilst performance wise, they played extremely well. The structure of the songs did not really tickle my fancy. However, that soon changed, once i started really paying attention it kind of grabbed me. Little things I noticed, like the guitarists really taking advantage of feedback through the amps, and intentionally shaping it. It sounded incredible.
As I said, initially not a fan, but now very much willing to give them a try more. If I hear of them performing again, I’ll be sure to throw them some ticket money.
By the time Dvne take to the stage, the room has now packed out a fair bit more. Having listened to them a fair bit in the previous weeks, I was fully intending on coming tonight either if it wasnt on assignment. Dvne, for some reason remind me of Tool. I'm not sure how, and it is not a massive resemblance but there's something there.
Therefore I was very much looking forward to hearing what they do live. Needless to say I was not disappointed. Everything about their performance far out weighed the expectations I had.
They have this way of moving between dreamlike melodies and massive, earth-shaking heaviness without making it feel jarring. One second it’s delicate and moody, and the next it’s like being hit by a tidal wave. The whole band is locked in on tonight's show. Yet at the same time it doesn't feel forced, this is what they do and they do it very well indeed.
Victor Vicart moves between clean vocals and guttural growls with ease, anchoring the whole set as the band push into deeper and darker territory. They barely pause between songs, each track flowing naturally into the next. At times it feels like one long, connected story rather than a collection of songs.
As a band that's been around since 2013, they deserve bigger shows than this. I would to see what they could do with a full on stage production. If they continue on this trajectory, hopefully they’ll start moving up the show sizes nicely .
With As Living Arrows setting the tone perfectly, the whole evening was a reminder of how powerful this kind of music can be when it’s done right loud, emotional, and totally unforgettable.
Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
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