Danava - retro classic rock / prog rock a la Zeppelin etc

I've never heard of this band until reading about them at Metalsucks today, and I am really impressed. Their riffs are pretty heavy and interesting, and definitely have a strong Zeppelin vibe. Vocals took me a couple minutes to adjust to but they're pretty good overall. Here are some songs from youtube. I think "Shoot Straight with a Crooked Gun" is pretty awesome.

Love these guys! I sent someone on this forum (Shiney, probably) one of their CDs, and he said they sucked. Pffft!

I dig 'em, though.

Wow I'd like to hear his reasoning. All I've heard are these three songs, but I think they are really killer! Glad to see someone else is a fan.

Looks like I can get their cds pretty cheap used at Amazon. I might just have to do that.

I didn't know they came out with a new one, so this thread helped me out. I just ordered Hemisphere of Shadows. I could have sworn Unonou just came out, but apparently not. It came out in 2008! Haha.

a friend turned me onto them a few months ago. they arent bad.

Kemada has put out a lot of great albums over the years. Problem is, they do these stupid limited edition releases a lot.

For instance, Saviours has two new 12" EPs that were released in August. You can't buy them online, though, you have to buy them at a show. That's frickin' lame! Nice way to alienate fans who can't get to a show.

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That's frickin' lame! Nice way to alienate fans who can't get to a show.

Eh, depends on how you look at it I suppose. To me, it sounds like it's something they're doing cool for the fans and encourages people to come see them live. Tomato, tomaato, right.

Anyway, that Danava sounds pretty cool, although I was checking out clips on Amazon and their 2nd album sounds way more spacy-er and prog-rock than those clips posted up above. Sounds like they changed it up from Led Zep to, I dunno, Hawkwind or something. Depending on your tastes, that could be a good thing or a bad thing.

Funny these guys should get mentioned, as I just picked up Unonou for next to nothing on a whim. I didn't expect much from it becauuse it was so cheap, but maybe it might be kinda like some of the old school prog based stuff I've been into such as Black Mountain, Hammmers of Misfortune, Black Bonzo, and Overhead. I'll give Danava a listen in the next few days and check back in.

SAHB Healer wrote:

Funny these guys should get mentioned, as I just picked up Unonou for next to nothing on a whim. I didn't expect much from it becauuse it was so cheap, but maybe it might be kinda like some of the old school prog based stuff I've been into such as Black Mountain, Hammmers of Misfortune, Black Bonzo, and Overhead. I'll give Danava a listen in the next few days and check back in.

Yeah, I don't think they're like those bands. They're more retro rock than prog.

I listened to Unonou during my commute the last couple of days, and I like it. It reminds me of Mammoth Volume what with the mix of average stoner rock and interesting but rough hewn prog. Or yeah, like Hawkwind. It'll be interesting to hear what direction they go from here.

I like this stuff alot!

Wargod

Ooooh baby! These guys are out there.

Well, I might have been a bit hasty with these guys.

Their s/t debut is decent enough in a stoner/proggy kinda way, but their follow-up, UnonoU, is leaving me kinda flat. I think they went a little too much into the "space" part and left off the "rock" for my taste.

I don't know if they continue that trend on their latest album, but I'm not exactly anxious to find out neither. Maybe I'll come back to them later.

Retro I can see, but prog? Not by any wild stretch of the imagination.

They sound "okay", but I have alot of this music performed far more convincingly.

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Retro I can see, but prog? Not by any wild stretch of the imagination.

I dunno. My definition of prog varies from yours, without a doubt. But when I hear a trumpet from outta nowhere and spacey keyboards, that's "progressive" enough for me.

The first album definately sits more in the stoner/jam category. Seems like on the 2nd album, the went more, let's say, experimental. More instrumentation than the standard guitar/bass/drum.

Is that better?

If Uriah Heep gets the prog tag, then there is no reason Danava can't have it. Are they a progressive band? No way. But they surely have element within their music.

I listened to a song from the second album, a little more interesting than the couple tracks from the first record I sampled, but overall it seems undercooked, haphazardly arranged and just not very good.

Bizarre instrumentation doesn't automatically equal "prog". There is a bagpipe solo on "It's A Long Way To The Top If You Wanna Rock N Roll" and I've surely never heard "progressive" used to describe AC/DC.

...and Uriah Heep is definitely not a prog band.

S.D. wrote:

I listened to a song from the second album, a little more interesting than the couple tracks from the first record I sampled, but overall it seems undercooked, haphazardly arranged and just not very good.

Bizarre instrumentation doesn't automatically equal "prog". There is a bagpipe solo on "It's A Long Way To The Top If You Wanna Rock N Roll" and I've surely never heard "progressive" used to describe AC/DC.

...and Uriah Heep is definitely not a prog band.

But they have prog elements to their music. As does Danava.

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Bizarre instrumentation doesn't automatically equal "prog". There is a bagpipe solo on "It's A Long Way To The Top If You Wanna Rock N Roll" and I've surely never heard "progressive" used to describe AC/DC.

That's not really a fair analogy. Noone thinks of the Stones as a middle eastern progressive band either just because Jones used a sitar once.

But how else would you describe a band that uses "non-traditional" instruments alongside the guitars & drums in many of their songs and writes tunes over 10 minutes in length with different time changes and melodies?

It may not be exact, but if fits my definition of progressive rock well enough.

These stupid genre identifiers aren't worth the effort to argue over. I don't really care what it's called.

If it sounds like prog to you then it's prog.

S.D. wrote:

These stupid genre identifiers aren't worth the effort to argue over. I don't really care what it's called.

I'm not trying to start an argument. I'm really asking you. How would you describe their music? If I didn't know anything about the band, I'd want to know their style. Stoner/space rock with some prog rock thrown in there seems apt.

Given your propencity for bands that don't fit into a specific label, I'd think these guys might appeal to you. Apparently not.

I've been sampling some tunes on Spotify, I hear more of a retro-psychedelic jam band kind of aesthetic. It's fairly straight-ahead early 70's style hard rock with occasional flourishes of psychedelic and/or space rock sounds mixed in for effect.

The core sound of the band is heavy power trio and most of the songs are in standard 4/4, so I still wouldn't use "prog" as the descriptor here. They are closer to Budgie than Gentle Giant.

The thing is, if you compare music from 1967 to 1974 or so with what is being released now...everything from that era sounds progressive by comparison. But that's kind of an illusion, because when you dig deeper into those early 70s sounds you hear how many different variations there were and lumping everyone together under a moniker does a gross injustice to those bands.

Yes does not sound like Pink Floyd, which in turn doesn't sound like Jethro Tull, who don't sound like ELP who sound nothing like Gentle Giant who aren't even close to sounding like King Crimson....

That's my problem with lumping all this stuff under a genre, because that negates the individuality these bands really had.

The Danava song I like the best so far is "Eyes In Disguise" from the debut, which sounds like early Rush with some synth effects thrown in for flavor.

Aaaaaahhhhhh, there's the old S.D. we know & love.

By the way, this conversation in no way validates or defends Danava in any way, shape or form. The jury is still out on whether I like 'em or not.