One of the early signings that helped put Kemado Records on the map, Danava now return with the long-awaited Hemisphere of Shadows, their first new album in three years.
Early 2011, the world was given a taste of the forthcoming third album when one new track, “The Illusion Crawls,” found its way onto Kemado’s three-way split with Earthless and Lecherous Gaze. Now, finally, enter the Hemisphere of Shadows…
“Ruling nations in a clever disguise / The ring of power / The all-seeing eye / Something wicked going on inside / This hemisphere of shadows,” Danava vocalist/guitarist/synth man Gregory Meleney sings on the album’s power-rocking title track. Meleney describes Hemisphere of Shadows as a guitar-driven beast that captures the real vibe of the band better than any other record: “This album is less Michael Moorcock and more Michael Schenker. On UnonoU we had all these long songs that we could never pull off live and weren’t originally written to end up on just one record. Adding Andrew Forgash as a second guitarist has also shifted our focus toward the guitars. This album is more so a live record. We translate best live and Hemisphere of Shadows is closer than we’ve ever been to capturing it.”
Hemisphere of Shadows was produced and mixed by Gregory Meleney and Morgan Mitchell at Orange Room in the band’s home of Portland, Oregon. The cover art shows a detail from The Coronation Of the Virgin by medieval French painter Enguerrand Quarton.