My jaw has just hit the floor, I've had to grab the nearest lamp post with my left hand as I involuntarily bend double. I look around to see if anyone else can hear what I'm hearing, which of course they can't as I have my headphones on. I bite my hand hard, but even that isn't enough....I can't stop myself from letting out an atmosphere tearing, guttural, belly laugh.
By the end of the second track on Danava's 'Unonou', 'Where Beauty And Terror Dance', I am crying with laughter. In the words of Mcenroe, they can NOT be serious!! This is to Sabbath what the Darkness was to Queen and it's bloody awesome!!
'Beauty...' boasts some thundering drums and a bass player who is out of his head and off the map. Then at 3.06 I have to look up (whilst I simultaneously wipe the coffee off myself that I've just spat out) to see if a miniature Stonehenge is about to descend from the blue ether. This is the point when the synth breakdown cuts in, and guides the song into third track 'Emerald Snow Of Sleep'. By this point I'm laughing so hard I've let a little bit go!
Surely, it can't get any funnier. Oh yes it can!! Is that...? I believe it is! Oh God it is! They've only gone and brought in a children's choir (well, badly layered vocals which sound slightly like a children's choir). THIS IS HILARIOUS! I love it. 'Emerald Snow...', despite having the vocals recorded in a bucket and leanings toward Jean Michel Jarre, could pull those tight jean, ill fitting T-shirt wearing, New Young Pony Club fans into the dark side when it morphs into a driving, straight ahead stomper on its way to the finishing line.
On 'A High Or A Low' there can not be a single note that the bass player does not make contact with, but again it's the vocals that let it down. It appears that they recorded all the music parts using a guide vocal, ran out of money and were stuck with it. Is it a shot at authenticity or is it just crap? Then the 'brass' kicks in. I use inverted commas as, unless their older sister's casio was plated with brass, I'm pretty sure no real brass instruments ever entered the studio.
There's no denying that these guys can play, just see 'Spinning Temple Shifting', with its eternal whig out featuring some tighter than Terry Wogans trousers guitar and bass, and earthquake inducing drums. Plus, if like me you love Sabbath and Spinal Tap, you're going to love this, probably for all the wrong reasons but love it nonetheless. It'll make you laugh, shake your head in disbelief but also cast a conspiratorial nod in their direction.
The kids who would have loved this when I was at school would have been described thus: American gas station attendants, who say dude constantly - inflecting it differently to mean: a question, an affirmative, a negative, hello, goodbye,... well you get the picture. They got bullied for having no skin, just acne, their glasses were bigger than their heads and they had hair made of grease or wire wool. So that accounts for about 75% of the Echoes and Dust team then!
If this is a comedy album it deserves a stunning 9/10, however if they're serious God help them. But I don't care, I love it. Keep on rawkin' DUUUUUDE!!
Listen to: ‘'Where Beauty And Terror Dance’, ‘'Spinning Temple Shifting’
Released 18/02/08 on Kemado Records