Review: Doganov – 'Something Dark To Dance To' / 'History'

DOGANOV 

'Something Dark To Dance To' / 'History' 

SELF-RELEASED 

The Belgian electro-rock band Doganov formed in 2010, but have already finely honed their sound into something rather exciting. Blending, industrial, ebm, metal and rock the band are heavy and yet danceable. Think Gothminister, meets 'Sehnsucht' era Rammstein, with intermittent dashes of new wave hooks sprinkled liberally throughout. It sounds like commercial gold, but bafflingly the band remained unsigned.

Across the six tracks on the band's promotional EP, they display a well-rounded sense of songwriting that, while guitar heavy, is punctuated by driving synth melodies and hard dance beats. Tracks like 'Endear You', 'Drain The Ocean' and 'I Am The Dark' are astoundingly catchy songs that will work quite nicely in a heavier club set or in front of a live audience.

The 'History' single builds nicely on the band's big tanzmetal meets ebm sound with a more melodic outing that incorporates a little of Blutengel's vampire-pop atmosphere into its formula. While the b-side 'Eyes Only' feels even more dance orientated and possesses perhaps the best chorus the band has recorded yet.

Both the EP and single are extremely gratifying listens. However the production and mixing isn't quite there yet and the distorted guitars tend to meld with the harsher synth sounds under the compression of the mp3 format. Yet that doesn't detract from what is essentially a fundamentally solid outing for what is a relatively new band.

The band have a great ear for riffs, the synth melodies are excellent, the dance-orientated pace of the songs gives them a little more range in appeal, and the vocals are performed with passion throughout. This should be a wet dream for any A&R man worth his salt. So labels, sit up and take notice and don't expect Doganov to be unsigned for much longer.

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