Danava 'Danava' album

There was a time when rock bands let the music speak for itself and did not worry about rock star attitudes. Danava would like to reclaim this sound and thinking by making every instrument the focus. Danava are the latest product from the Kemado label (Dungen, The Sword, Tarantula A.D.), and their head-spinning heavy psych has a Blue Cheer-by-way-of-Zeppelin boost of rock essence that should quench the thirst of thousands of jaded head bangers. The five songs on this full-length are epic to be sure, all stretching past the six minute mark. They regardless never meander toward unattainable goals. The solos are here as well as the twists, the turns, and vibrating vocal quivers; it's all you could possibly ask for in a straight-up rock band. Those who continue to mourn the disintegration of Sabbath should get those air-frets in working order. All tracks clean.

Biography
Although Danava (pronounced DON-UH-VUH) play the type of ferociously intense, foundation-rattling, rock and roll that might righteously justify some good old fashioned head-banging, vocalist Dusty Sparkles wants you to know that he doesn't consider his band a metal outfit.

Nor are they prog-rock, or part of whatever ridiculous, wonky sounding "movement" someone just came up with to try to lump a bunch of disparate bands together. Sparkles has as much use for genre tags as folks on the Titanic did for bottled water. He's not interested in being part of a scene, and he's entirely unconcerned about anyone's reaction to or opinion of his band.

"We're not trying to fit in," he drawls nonchalantly. "And if we're not happy, we're not gonna do something. It's all about us."

Danava might create music for themselves, but they've connected with an audience hungry for something intelligent, interesting, complex - and heavy. A short three years after forming somewhat casually in Portland the band is gearing up to release their self-titled debut on Kemado Records.

Whether the record's release (on Halloween, natch) will catapult them to fame, fortune and headlining arena tours doesn't seem to occupy much space in Danava's collective psyche. The band is too busy focusing on the long-lost arts of musical composition and musicianship, as well as delivering the kind of visceral, epic live show that has already left a broad wake of overstimulated senses and blown minds.

"It's best not to expect anything from us," states Sparkles. "We don't expect to make the same record twice, or do anything other than what we want to do. We'll either get weirder - or not. We love so many styles of music it's impossible to say where things will go from here. This record came out this way, but we might all sit down at the keyboards one day and do a record as a fucking synthesizer quartet."

That's the genius behind Danava - four musicians who strive to combine creativity and musical skills in unique and unpredictable ways. Maybe the only thing it's safe to expect is that whatever comes next will be as much a surprise to the band as it will be to its fans.

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Tracklisting

Danava - Danava