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Danava

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Who? Portland, Oregon’s Danava is Dusty Sparkles on vocals, guitar, synths, and keyboards, Buck Rothy on drums, Dell Blackwell on bass guitar, and Rockwell on synthesizers. Their second full-length, UnonoU drops Feb. 19 via Kemado, and you can catch them now through the beginning of April on their North American tour with Acid Mothers Temple (or at the Roadburn Festival in August, if you happen to live in Holland).

What’s the Deal? Is there such a thing as nerd-metal-core? Because that’s what this sounds like (in the best way possible). Album opener “UnonoU,” with Sparkles’ guitar pyrotechnics and feral wails, comes off like a Zeppelin B-side, or at least something off a secret Guitar Hero level. The rest of the album righteously follows suit; “The Emerald Snow of Sleep” is as ridiculous as it sounds, all pained keening and Dungeons and Dragons synthesizers. Things change on “Down from a Cloud, Up from the Ground,” which turns the noise down towards the beginning of the song. The drums and guitars clear out, allowing only sinister synths to traipse around Sparkles’ vocals, giving them a haunted feel. This only lasts for a second, though, as the band soon returns to the rawk, as they always seem to.

Fun Fact: Besides appearing in photographs with really sweet moustaches, the band joins in the grand tradition of metal bands doing things to piss of your parents just by existing. You see, a Danava is an Asura, one of the demons from Vedic mythology. Raise those devil horns, everybody.

Now Hear This:
Danava – “Where Beauty and Terror Dance” DOWNLOAD MP3

On the Web:
Danava at MySpace