Logo
ISSUE #34.14 • MUSIC •
[MUSIC]

Danava UnonoU (Kemado Records)

Share: | Permalink
Email | Print | Rate It! | 0 comments
Recently in "Music"

November 4th, 2009
35th Anniversary Mixtape3 comments

November 4th, 2009
Clublist Spotlight • Space Oddity0 comments

November 4th, 2009
CD Reviews: Loch Lomond, Brothers Young0 comments

November 4th, 2009
David Bazan Friday, Nov. 6 | The former Pedro the Lion frontman’s fall from grace begets one hell of a solo debut.0 comments

November 4th, 2009
Boat Thursday, Nov. 5 | The King of Tacoma and his countrymen get real serious.0 comments

November 4th, 2009
Top 5: Casey Jarman Listens To The Billboard Hot 1000 comments

November 4th, 2009
Ghost Stories | World’s Greatest Ghosts aren’t the type of nerds you think they are.0 comments

October 28th, 2009
Clublist Spotlight • Feedback Wishes And PBR Dreams0 comments

October 28th, 2009
Primer: Broadcast0 comments

October 28th, 2009
CD Review: Arrington De Dionyso0 comments


BY ERIK BADER | 503-243-2122

[February 13th, 2008]

[QUASI-METAL] Despite the blatant headbanging and hesher styles, the long hair, cigarettes and cheap beer, metalheads are in fact extremely intelligent people—albeit weird intelligent people—who are capable of many things you are not. They can draw extremely intricate photorealistic depictions of muscular men and buxom women fighting giant serpents. They not only change their own oil; they build their own engines. They know what “critical hit ratio” means. They can decipher gruesome fonts on T-shirts and album covers that you cannot—and will not—ever understand. And, oftentimes, they can play very complex, difficult music.

Portland’s Danava plays complex and difficult music. It’s metal, sure, but this is definitely metal of the progressive type. There are arpeggios. There are keyboards. There are odd time signatures. There are definitive devil horns of the high-in-the-sky kind. The hard, psych rock of Blue Cheer and Thin Lizzy is a starting point. The finishing line is somewhere very far and very weird.

The four-piece’s second album, UnonoU, finds the time-displaced unit traversing territories even proggier than those on its self-titled debut. But from the twitchy keyboards of “The Emerald Snow of Sleep” to the glammy “whoo-oo-hoo’s” of “A High or a Low,” these mustachioed gents’ leather boots are firmly planted in the camp of ’70s metal. All the tracks are long (the shortest is over four minutes), with extended elliptical structures that live in a proto-magic era between Lemmy in Hawkwind and Lemmy in Motörhead, leaving sufficient room for wailing, noodling solos.













icon Story continues below

advertisement

advertisement

The final track, “One Mind Gone Separate Ways,” is a 13-minute mindfuck that gallops with Iron Maiden rhythms into a festering pit of twisted keyboards and all-out insanity. Music of this kind is meant to transport people somewhere. For this particular writer, that somewhere is an unfinished basement with a shag carpet and drop ceiling, populated by a half-eaten box of Domino’s pizza, a black-and-red Nintendo controller and an 8-bit princess who needs saving, like, pronto. There’s a 20-sided die, a sheet of graph paper and jeans that are too tight. The whole place smells like cereal and dudes. And it all just feels totally right.

SEE IT: UnonoU comes out Sunday, Feb. 17. Danava plays Friday, Feb. 15, with Blue Cheer and Red Fang at Dante’s. 9 pm. $15 advance, $18 day of show. 21+. Danava also plays a CD release show and video premiere Thursday, Feb. 21, with SubArachnoid Space, DarkBlack, Torn to Pieces and DJ Moonchild at Lola’s Room. 9 pm. $6 advance, $8 day of show. 21+.

 

Rate This Story
Be the first to rate this story.

 
read all 0 comments | add your comment
 

RECENT COMMENTS ON “Danava UnonoU (Kemado Records)”

 
 
 





Recently in Willamette Week
December 31st 1969Washington State | The Canada of Oregon has it all—a Stonehenge replica, a longboarder's concrete wet dream and dark, damp underground lava caves. Vive les rocks.
December 31st 1969Oregon's Outer Edges | Crater Lake. Hell's Canyon. Wallowa and Steens mountain ranges. Hell, yeah.
December 31st 1969Central Oregon/High Desert | No rain, plenty of snow, obsidian flows and great local beer. The folks from the real eastside know how to unbend outside.
December 31st 1969Great Cascades/Columbia Gorge | With plenty of room to roam—and hot springs for your weary feet—it's the place to ramble and relax for the weekend.
December 31st 1969Willamette Valley | Monks, tracks, tubing and wine make the fertile strip a virile place to play.
December 31st 1969Stumptown | Tons of public parks, an extinct volcano and nude beach volleyball to keep you jolly. Get out and collect those merit badges, without leaving the city.
December 31st 1969The Coast | The beaches are public. You own them. Go play—hike in the old-growth forests.
December 31st 1969Cycle Tour 101: Your on-bike guide to Highway 101 | To ride the greatest bike route in Oregon, you need to get out of Portland.
December 31st 1969Doggin' It | What happens when a Portland running club jogs with pooches from the pound?
December 31st 1969Over the Edge | Sam Drevo will paddle yr ass.