Dzö-nga
Boston, MA | Established. Jan 01, 2016
Music
Press
“Imagine early Ulver with the acoustic palette of Opeth and the classical influence turned up to 11… Dzö-nga stand beside Nechochwen as a band offering an intriguing Native American theme along with exciting instrumentation and a healthy dose of originality. Fans of Agalloch, Ulver, and other folk/black acts are sure to love this.” - Angry Metal Guy
“The Sachem’s Tales provides a damn fine, occasionally stunning foray into the style that calls to mind some truly wonderful influences… Blazing, but beautiful.” - Last Rites
“[The Sachem’s Tales is] a glorious synthesis of the heavy and the delicate that shows what the best atmospheric black metal projects can accomplish. ABM listeners are probably going to love this, but darkwave and neofolk types should take notice too.” - MetalReviews.com
“The Sachem’s Tales is a damn good listen that I’ve been recommending to people almost as soon as I finished the album. It has that Cascadian black metal feel without the actual Cascadians…maybe this could be the advent of a ‘New England’ style?” - Resounding Footsteps
“The Sachem’s Tales is a beautifully atmospheric Black Metal gem. The keyboards are all perfectly placed, and the terrifying harsh vocals come at just the right places. A unique and utterly fascinating ride.” - The Dirty Room
“In case you’re searching for the next name in Atmospheric and Epic Black Metal, you must take a listen at The Sachem’s Tales…Dzö-nga is definitely the perfect name to represent the music by this heavy and eccentric monster of underground extreme music.” - The Headbanging Moose
"There are moments of dazzling beauty and energy as well as a creativity that is certainly difficult to match...“The Sachem Tales” is a whole new musical journey, one that winds its way through hearts of forests, the tops of mountain peaks, and the bottom of abyssal gullies, whisking the listener into these distant lands with it." - Sputnik Music
"There’s always been an unspoken of elite groups of atmospheric black metal bands throughout the scene...Dzö-nga has more than proven themselves to be placed among those bands with this record." - Head-Banger Reviews
"DZÖ-NGA plays the great balancing act with careful precision as to let the melodies and root elements to shine through like rays of light even when the stormy black metal clouds should filter out every ray of light...THE SACHEM’S TALES is a satisfying stream of melodic flow that perfectly conveys the concepts at hand despite the indecipherable lyrical content." - Metal Music Archives
"This is my favorite black metal release of the year...Everyone who likes black metal and is not afraid to grab an acoustic guitar once in a while should try this album and enjoy the journey through Native American Folklore that Dzö-nga has to offer." - Metal Man Reviews
"This is a fantastic album in the area of Atmospheric Black Metal that really takes advantage of a host of other sounds, some bright and some dark, to pare down some of the pungent sound that the more intense side of Black Metal offers as all too overwhelming. There is quite a lot of charm here blooming at every turn." - Metal Temple
"Dzö-Nga are storytellers – so if you enjoy an album that’s going to take you on a journey via words and sounds, you’ll want to give this a listen. As I said before, the heavy parts of this album are decent, but the storytelling and songwriting on this work really make it come together." - Bloodrock Media
"By combining folk elements with atmospheric black metal, [Dzö-nga's] recent album “The Sachem’s Tales” is a very unique, well-conceived, and very underrated album. Overall this release is fantastic...This will easily be one of the most overlooked albums of the year, and one that deserves as much attention as it can get." - Metal Purgatory Media
“An astonishingly focused work...best if heard in its entirety so listeners can appreciate its flowing quality, the deep brooding ambience, the use of dark space as an instrument and mood-setter, and the subtle, almost organic changes that occur throughout. This is a very brave and ambitious recording." - The Sound Projector
"Monolithic, cold and harrowing...The sound of the singing bowl is an ingenious choice on this record." - SputnikMusic
"Both lyrics and instrumentation conspire together to transform all thoughts into those of ice filled landscapes and snow-kissed forests...the entirety of winter’s auditory world is laid out before the listener, and with every additional syllable of the poem, every enticing melody, the more palpable it becomes." - Illicit Listening
Bio
Dzö-nga (zone-gah) is a black metal project formed in 2016. The band draws inspiration from world mythologies in creating genre-blending epics, imbuing a Cascadian black metal sound with classical music flair.
The band's second album "The Sachem’s Tales" (Avantgarde Music, 2017) earned it an international following with a unique take on folk and atmospheric metal. In 2018, demand from fans and fellow bands pushed Dzö-nga to expand into a touring lineup with musicians from respected Boston-area projects (Hemlok, Blind Revision, Age of Embers, Rithiya Khiev).
The goup is currently playing a run of shows over the winter and spring, both headlining and in support of veterans of the New England metal scene (Obsidian Tongue, Infera Bruo, Vale, Vivisepulture, etc). Dzö-nga is currently recording its third full-length album in spring 2019 under the guidance of producer Øystein Brun (Borknagar).
Band Members
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