{"id":24,"date":"2015-11-11T23:13:47","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T23:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.phonographofdoom.com\/?p=24"},"modified":"2022-01-12T00:47:40","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T00:47:40","slug":"danava","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.phonographofdoom.com\/index.php\/2015\/11\/11\/danava\/","title":{"rendered":"Danava"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Danava. What do you know about them? Here\u2019s what I know:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. 1. They have 3 full-length albums (that I can find).<\/li>\n
  2. 2. They\u2019re from Portland.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    That\u2019s it. Not even sure how to say their name. I assumed it was duh-NAH-vuh, but then I heard Kadavar refer to them as DAH-nah-vuh, which I\u2019d be happy to take as the final word except it was spoken hesitantly and in a German accent. This probably makes me a terrible racist. We all have our quirks.<\/p>\n

    There\u2019s this thing I do to help me separate the delicious, distorted wheat from the overproduced, boring chaff in my music library: download everything that seems remotely interesting on my trusty Xbox Music Pass of Doom* (hey, I\u2019m not opposed to technology. The phonograph comes later, when I\u2019ve paid for the LP), put it all on random, and when something comes up that strikes my fancy I go see what it is. Danava has consistently been a fancy-striker for me, to the point where before I was able to identify their sound (eventually, I pegged it as something along the lines of a more accessible Mars Volta), I just started assuming that if I heard something that I liked it was probably them.<\/p>\n

    Here are the things about them that catch my ear: mildly spacey but still driving; great riffs with basslines that occasionally diverge to counter and support them rather than mimic them; kind of proggy, but not in an off-putting way. COME ON, I\u2019m not being anti-prog; you know what I mean. Some bands just smugly throw weird time signatures and out chord changes into the mix in a way that seems more like a personality flaw than a reflection of musicianship. Like instead of the musicians actually finding the changes appropriate for the song, it\u2019s just that the drummer didn\u2019t get enough validation from his dad when he was in third grade and is now overcompensating by proving how many polyrhythms he can fit into each piece. Yeah, I said the drummer; wanna fight about it? THE POINT IS: Danava do not<\/em> do that. They change things up a bit to keep things interesting, but not in a self-conscious way- there\u2019s a good balance between their building-block hooky bits and the more abstract passages where they toss in an extra measure free of charge. The vox might be a little high for some, but it\u2019s nothing any Rush fan can\u2019t handle.<\/p>\n

    Unfortunately for yours truly, there have been two opportunities in recent memory to see them live, and I missed both. Probably for unforgivable reasons. NOT ONLY THAT, but the last time I just got there late and was still determined to come home a few bucks lighter and a few LPs richer, but they packed up all their merch and split before the end of the night. DANAVA! How can I support you if you\u2019re playing hard to get like that? I had to order your shiz through Amazon<\/em>. That\u2019s embarrassing. And now I still don\u2019t have one of your shirts, or even know if they exist. I know YOU exist, though, which is reassuring.<\/p>\n

    This video for “Where Beauty and Terror Dance” is creepy as fuck and I love it- especially the part about how the singer looks like the template for the Derek Smalls character:<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n