Praise for Danava‘s Hemisphere Of Shadows from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: It’s not really all that much fun writing a review of this new Danava album. What’s fun is listening to it, turned up loud… and maybe getting buzzed on a substance of choice whilst doing so. Whoo-hoo! Granted, that’s the case with lots of albums, classics like say Deep Purple In Rock or Alice Cooper’s Love It To Death. The kind that require, nay inspire, such behavior.
Those, though, weren’t just released, but this was, so all the more an occasion for drunken loud listening. They don’t make ‘em like this all that often anymore, so kudos to Kemado for bringing us the real deal (ironic, isn’t it). Though its exactly what we’ve come to expect from Portland psych-prog-stoner rockers Danava, and are happy to hear once again.
Since the time we checked in with these boys, they’ve undergone some lineup changes. They now rock to the beat of a different drummer, for one thing. And the guy who only played synths is gone now… but in his stead, way better yet, they’ve added a 2nd guitarist for extra twin axe attackin’, so that’s a win. The bassist and the singin’ lead guitarist are the same, and that’s what really matters in this band, those dudes. They slay.
Needless (at this point) to say, this new album is a killer, replete from the very get-go with rollicking, riff-rockin’ badassery. These new Danava jams are seriously being kicked, way out. And they’re, y’know, real songs too, with real vocals and everythin’, like it’s back in 1973 or so and they’ve got something to prove, those twin guitars givin’ with the glorious harmonies (think Thin Lizzy, on the song ‘I Am The Skull’ here especially). They sound like old time Pentagram too, but galloping like they wuz in the Preakness. The Preakness of freakness. Danava are doin’ it, here.
They’re gonna out rock, out prog, out psych, out retro-proto-metal all comers. Speedy and sinuous, no doubt a bit of stress on all the wrists and necks involved in the making of this music. And there’s still the usual embellishments of spacey synthy FX sprinkled about, even with that one guy gone. It’s all almost a bit overwhelming, which is why it’s nice that the very last track, the instrumental ‘Dying Into The Light’ winds things up on a calming, eerily pretty note. Whew…
And, it should be noted that they further pay tribute to their ’70s forebears by covering a song, ‘The Last Goodbye‘, by obscure UK blooze bashers Slowbone, not that you’d think it wasn’t one of their own. So, yep, getting ripped and listening to these guys rip (rollercoaster style, like they do) is of course way better than writing or reading this review. The response should be obvious. We, or well at least one of us anyway, is gonna kick back and crank this right now. You, should buy a copy and do the same as soon as you can.
By the way, all that drink / drug stuff is meant metaphorically, for all we know the guys in Danava, and their intended listening audience, are super straight edge, not stoners, let alone beer drinkers and hell raisers – though we doubt it.
At 40 years old, Aquarius is the oldest independent record store in San Francisco. We try to only carry music we love, and we’re always searching for more new, cool, weird and wonderful music. All of which we then share with you, our loyal customers.
Tags: Album of the day, Aquarius Records, Danava, heavy 70's, Hemisphere Of Shadows, Kemado Records
This entry was posted on Saturday, November 5th, 2011 at 2:28 pm and is filed under 2011, Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
No Responses to “Album of the day: Danava – Hemisphere Of Shadows”