Dagoba

The French metal music scene is doing veeeery well, thanks for asking.
Since its borders have been open to the outside the whole world has had the opportunity to discover its artists and has been praising its wealth, strength and creativity.Finally.
Since 2003 and its first self titled album DAGOBA has been fiercely climbing up to the top and proudly represents the French metal. From Marseille the French musicians have been crossing key steps with every single one of their six albums and have been equally acclaimed by critics and fans. Stretching towards the 90’s American power-metal (Pantera, Fear Factory, Machine Head) DAGOBA confirmed that inclination when they chose Logan Mader from Los Angeles to work on their two latest albums. Doing so they still managed not to get caught up into just one style. Au contraire, DAGOBA furious and overly powerful metal is fed with even more ambitious dynamics.
As large as Tales Of The Black Dawn but definitly more eclectic, Black Nova doesn’t count only on its accelerations but also on its much heavier or more aerial parts alternately with that very strong rythmic that can be frenetic or martial. Shawter – singer, guitarist, composer and leader of DAGOBA since its creation twenty years ago – remains the main producer of his own creation. Black Nova has been recorded in Eagle Back, Shawter’s studio in Marseille, as were its predecessors. But Shawter can now count on the help of Jacob Jansen (Volbeat, Evergrey, Epica) for the mix and the mastering.
Just finishing a tour in Japan, DAGOBA is proud to present its seventh album : Black Nova. Like a star thats shines as well because of a superhuman energy and a very deep darkness, Black Nova has many faces. The members of DAGOBA didn’t hide themselves into the corners of their own universe but instead offered a record striking with maturity where their very own identity meets all of their different infuences.
The Instrumental “Tenebra” unveils a captivating atmosphere that grabs you as if there was a black hole between the soon to be mistreated sound speakers in your living room. It is followed by “Inner Sun”, an incredibly strong piece that shall be the soundtrack of the most wild pits. That track represents on its own the amount of work DAGOBA put on this album: from the writing to the unseen combination of arrangements or to the technical talent of the musicians. Other jewels like this one can be found later such as “The Infinite Chase”.
There we are seized by the grandiloquence of “The Legacy of Ares”. That piece tends on joining the symphonic and remarkable works of the Norwegian black metal masters like Dimmu Borgir. Shawter got that sense of orchestration and cinematographic imagery from his obsession for the Hollywood composers such as John Williams or Hans Zimmer in their most eloquent works. It marks Black Nova like a thread especially on “Fire Dies” or on the epic “Vantablack” in conclusion.
Elsewhere DAGOBA goes over the limits of an industrial metal, articulated and mechanic. When following that well-oiled and imperishable tradition, proper to the headbangings and the powerful scuffles seen on every festival site, DAGOBA dares to add electro and dubstep hits reminding us of the bold experimentations of Korn working with independent DJs such as Skrillex which creates a groove, a momentum, a new vitality as sharp as it is impressive in the guitar riffs without betraying any of its aspirations.
The words masculinity is never diminished in the use of a clearly more modulated voice: the shrieks remain rough even with these melodic lines bringing us back to those of their fellow Americans and friends Bukowski which offer us startling contrasts.
With such a record, armed with Jive/Epic for France and Century Media for the rest of the world, nothing will be able to slow down that very strong challenger in its ascending race to the international recognition.