The Voice of Bres—Who is Davidavi ‘Vidi’ Dolev?
Experience the overwhelming power of metal music like never before in Of Bird and Cage, a unique metal album presented through a short story-driven game. Developed by Capricia Productions, the story, based on ‘Beauty and the Beast’, follows Gitta Barbot, a young drug addict, who tries to escape the physical and mental prison of her captor—Bres Lupus.
Bres is a mysterious and complicated character, whose past is slowly revealed through the songs in the game as the story progresses. He’s voiced by musician Davidavi ‘Vidi’ Dolev, from Gunned Down Horses and Subterranean Masquerade. But who is Davidavi ‘Vidi’ Dolev?
Davidavi Dolev grew up in Haifa, Israel, where his adventure with music started. Led by his love for music and inspired by experimental vocals, he believes the Middle East to be the future of Rock’n’roll. “That’s one of the reasons why I am doing what I do,” he shared in an interview with Metalorgie. You can read the full interview here.
As a full time musician, Davidavi Dolev performed as a vocalist for different bands—Omb, Reign of the Architect, Seventh Station, before forming his current band, Gunned Down Horses and joining the Middle Eastern progressive metal group, Subterranean Masquerade.
Davidavi describes the music of Gunned Down Horses as cinematic rock, impulsive and intense when performed live. The Israeli band is influenced by “the realms of dark chansons, cabaret, and horse operas”, with sound ranging “from Nick Cave meeting Fellini to FNM meeting Tarantino”.
The band has released albums such as Four Songs for Neema and Turtle Doves, the latter tackling the issue of domestic violence and serving as a basis for the book “Turtle Doves: The Book”. “Together with the book, the song became a multi-disciplinary piece which includes music, text, and illustrations that help convey the message in an encompassing way,” write Gunned Down Horses on their website. All income for the book, which is available here, is donated to the Haifa Rape Crisis Center (HRCC).
Subterranean Masquerade, Davidavi’s other project, was founded back in 1997 by Tomer Pink, its guitarist and primary songwriter. The band, also from Israel, plays progressive metal. Davidavi’s career with Subterranean Masquerade began in 2018, when he joined the band’s European tour. The relationship bloomed, leading to the band’s announcement that he’d been made a permanent member a few months later. Follow their Facebook to stay up to date with the latest news about the band’s album releases.
Davidavi’s collaboration on Of Bird and Cage with members of other great bands, including Epica and Within Temptation, was revealed in 2019. Here you can see a video of Davidavi Dolev performing one of the songs featured in the game, Burning the Past:
Was voicing Bres a challenge for Davidavi Dolev? “Artistically I found myself in a long emotional negotiation as I didn’t find the character a likeable person to say the least. I had to focus on his motives and needed to find some sense in his extremely twisted opinions about justice, sometimes to move away from disgust and towards compassion which was not a comfortable process,” explained Davidavi. “I found no forgiveness in my heart towards him and to find the reasons for his deeds was at times painful. I think “Of Bird and Cage” has an incredible shock value that will make you think twice about your daily choices and the greater importance of kindness.”
“In the end, Bres’ story is a very tragic one of radical continuous trauma, of a person with distorted views, who was not seen by his surroundings and endured an unfortunate life which led him on a path of violence and bad decisions. Bres is a wounded animal and I tried to voice him as such: Dangerous, tortured and unexpected,” added Davidavi.
See our other articles about the musicians from Of Bird and Cage:
- Kobra Paige (Kobra and the Lotus)
- Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (ex-Guns N’ Roses)
- Ruud Jolie (Within Temptation)
- Rocky Gray (ex-Evanescence)
- Mike Lepond (Symphony X)
- Danny Worsnop (Asking Alexandria)
- Tina Guo
- Snowy Shaw (ex-King Diamond, ex-Therion)