'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.