Caught between primal urges and aspirations

ByRAFI YOVELLNOVEMBER 7, 2026 20:15

Israeli underground metal band Submasq’s eclectic style and outstanding vocalist have captivated listeners from all over the globe. This may sound contradictory given their underground status, but Submasq and their singer, Davidavi “Vidi” Dolev, have pulled it off.

Their just-released album, Spirit Animal, marks a new peak for Dolev and the band.

Thanks to Dolev’s immense stage presence, soulful singing, and ability to emit seemingly any sound imaginable from his vocal cords, many Israeli metal aficionados consider him one of the greatest vocalists of all time, and he has helped make Submasq into one of the top metal acts in Israel.

Dolev said that Spirit Animal was made as a concept album about a conflicted person having a conversation with himself, caught between primal urges and aspirations. “Spirit Animal deals with trauma, bipolar disorder, collective memory, war … All the things that prevent the spirit from rising, oppressing the soul,” he said.

“Textually, I felt this album had to be very direct and personal. The more personal it is, I hope that way more people will be able to connect to it when they read the texts.”

Dolev's journey to Submasq

Dolev, also the vocalist for the international metal band Seventh Station, initially performed in choirs and was interested in hip-hop. His first taste of rock and metal was through the debut album of Shabak Samech, an Israeli hip-hop band, whose distorted guitars dazzled the young singer.

After a few years of learning guitar, his parents took away his instrument because he spent too much time playing. As a result, Dolev became a vocalist to remain active in the field. “That’s how I rolled into the microphone, and have been ever since,” he said.

“Beyond that, I teach alternative voice development using CVT [Complete Vocal Technique], something I studied in Copenhagen for a few years. It’s a method we brought to Israel not long ago. Five vocal coaches in the country are certified to teach it.”

As for his influences, Dolev said, “Singers like Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Mike Patton, and David Bowie are a quartet from outside the world of heavy music who’ve significantly influenced me. From within the world of heavy music, I’ve grown attached to singers like Warrel Dane from Nevermore who’ve taught me how to write lyricism, but also how to open the throat in a way that expresses far beyond the words themselves.”

Submasq (originally called Subterranean Masquerade) formed in 1997 in Salt Lake City with guitarist Tomer Pink. He worked with American musicians for many years before establishing Submasq as a live act in 2016. The band recently officially changed its name to Submasq.

“Since then, the band is full of Israeli musicians who write and create together. Our recordings are done from the Golan Heights to Tel Aviv to Sweden. We really love going there to write and record, and everything is done independently,” Dolev said.

“The band is very influenced by a variety of cultures. On one hand, much of our music is influenced by 80s metal and 70s prog rock. On the other hand, we’re also quite influenced by Arabic and Indian music,” he continued. “Tomer traveled in India a lot to create the music we’re writing. He’d fly to the Himalayas, write the records, then go back to produce them in Israel.”

Band oscillates between 70s-style progressive rock, death metal growls

To an outsider, it may seem strange that a band’s music oscillates so frequently between light, 70s-style progressive rock sounds and heavier, death metal growls. But Dolev insisted this is only natural, as Submasq wants their music to represent the backgrounds and influences of the individual members.

“It’s part of our influences. Just like how you could hear a clarinet that plays klezmer or a sitar that plays Indian ragga, death metal is part of what we bring to the music. We try to paint a picture of who we are, and to ensure that picture is complete, we take note of our history as niche musicians of the underground and what we especially enjoy.

“Furthermore, I can say that the switching up of vocal styles is very important to me in order to reflect different moods as part of the music and story we want to tell. Just like how there’s a guitar played with distortion, then one that’s played clean or an acoustic, that’s how we view the vocals.”

Spirit Animal even features a solo by world-renowned guitar master Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, who met Dolev through a video game convention called “Nordic Games.” The two musicians were invited to work on a game titled Of Bird and Cage, made by Israeli studio Capricia Productions.

Dolev voiced the main villain, and Bumblefoot played guitar solos in the game’s soundtrack. At the convention, they performed this soundtrack as part of a concert.

While they have performed around the world, he acknowledged that in a post-October 7 world, being an Israeli band brings difficulties in the music business.

“Many people in Europe who had been in touch with us before October 7 have since cut contact. And many opportunities we’ve had in the past fell through the cracks. It took us time to release the current record, Spirit Animal, because we had to find the right place to publish it, and some labels were worried about getting involved with an Israeli band,” Dolev said.

“Thankfully, we found Willowtip Records in Philadelphia who truly believe in the album and see it for its music and the people behind it, and put the politics aside. But overall, it was harder for us in the first two years of the war to schedule shows abroad and get equal opportunities.”

In recent months, things have been looking up for the band, he said, and starting in January, they will do a European tour and perform music from the new album.

Looking back on everything in his career that has led up to this moment, Dolev said: “I recorded many albums across the world; I’ve performed in over 27 countries. My love is experimental music and metal in its more progressive forms. I’ve been doing this professionally for 15 years.”

When talking about what the Israeli metal scene has to offer, Dolev said, “The cultural mix we’re part of allows us to create more colorful music and more accurate portraits of what we experience around us. I think Israeli music improves each year, our knowledge of sound keeps developing, and I think unlike many other parts of the world, we really have something to write about.”

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