Album of the Week Vol. 4 - Unonou

Tonight, landing at Johnny Brenda's is the infamous Acid Mother's Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. Acid Prog will wreak havoc on the crowd. Opening for these outerspace rockers (aka- Japan) is Danava. These guys are quite the musical experience and their new album Unonou has garnered the official spot for the album of the week.

Danava have a crazy sound. As I've stated before when reviewing their self titled debut for Marginal Minds, I noticed that they are somewhere between early 70's prog and the early glam years of Bowie. Fantastical lyrics and mind numbing riffage flow from the Oregon three piece and mind altering speeds. The self titled debut was chock full of catchy riffs especially the tracks "By The Mark" and "Longdance." On the new album, the absurdly made up Unonou takes their sound and continues running down the field of psychedelia and grandiose rocking.

Unonou kicks off with an insanely fast paced syncopated rhythm with the titular track. The pace is frenzied, the vocals are howling and this continues right straight through to the end. Although Danava had great tracks, the variety wasn't really set in place that Unonou has proved. "Where Beauty and Terror Dance" is a fantastic song with interesting structure and an amazing synth/guitar outro that will haunt you as the next track bleeds into it. "The Emerald Snow of Sleep" is hypnotic with it's sequenced synth riff and it's slow build into epic rocking ending with horns and all. The standout track is definitely the more pop rock laden "A High or a Low" with the horns continuing and the beat jaunty and still filled with the magnificent howlings of Dusty Sparkles. The last half plods on with strides of rock glory and the closing epic "One Mind Gone Seperate Ways" is a homage to Led Zeppelin (although it sounds a little too much like "Achilles Last Stand"... but when was that ever a bad thing?)



Regardless of your thoughts on prog or glam, or prog glam for that matter, these guys rule. It's otherworldly and crazy goodness. Czech em out.