ALBUM REVIEW: New Sun – Ştiu Nu Ştiu
Dark-gaze is an interesting name to put on a record. It opens a band up to many ways of interpreting a more expansive sound. ȘTIU NU ȘTIU take that sound to a new wave, psychedelic place with an old school metal and post-punk leaning to produce their fourth record New Sun. With such a wide variety of influences, what does this album have to offer?
The opening of the record Styx moves along well enough, but its psychedelic edge only takes it so far once the main stabbing chords have established themselves. An extended intro to the opening song is a bold move, but honestly isn’t usually a good one. It’s well over a minute before the pulsing intro breaks into any vocals, by which time many people won’t bother giving something a chance. It’s clearly a record meant for people willing to persevere and dig a little deeper, but things only getting interesting nearly 90 seconds into a song isn’t making an impact, it’s setting people up for a slog. Likewise, Siren has a brooding edge, but thankfully picks up in the final third to some kind of climax.
If you’re into a more traditional heavy metal and doom styles then the middle section of the record is where you’ll find your form. Transcend has something of a BLACK SABBATH influence to it, while title track New Sun has the tone and emotional textures in its melodic repetitions that this record was looking for in the beginning. It lends itself to being a longer track, its grasp on the eight-ish-minute runtime allowing for subtle changes and that ambient presence to build into something beautiful by its ending. That said, the intro is still a minute too long to capture your attention if you’re still on the fence about this one.
The last half of New Sun is where the record really finds its feel. Nyx has a much more upbeat feel, and again goes on a bit, but there’s a serene feel, both through the soaring changes from chorus and verse, and in the way the drums finally break out of their initial groove and become a flurry of beautiful textures that are the focal, bold colour of the piece. The way the guitars fit into the wash of drums and symbols is like the fine details in a picture, bringing a higher clarity and expression to what the song achieves.
Zero Trust is the magnum opus of this record without question. With so many movements between the dark and ominous and familial welcoming, this bombastic track takes you down the rabbit hole to psychedelic, dangerous places. Its bright and enchanting nature is twofold; the euphoric chanting and relentless drums push and pull against the guitars in a dance that feels otherworldly and profound. The morose Visa croons with ease and for once, its intro feels like it’s part of a richer tapestry, building into a dense and luxurious song that moves like crashing waves, an ocean of powerful, sleepy emotions; a reminisce on times almost forgotten.
While Dragon’s Lair is perfectly placed in the album – it’s a big tune with a lot of lush shoegaze qualities – it bookends the record with the same issues that it opened with. The fact that the tone and riffs are just too constantly looped, regardless of how bombastic and profound it feels, does lose your interest. Things only start to feel like emotions are fraying, that things are loosening and becoming more ragged, more distorted, more human, by the final two minutes, confusing opinions. It’s either a great artistic choice, showing a brilliant, gradual fraying into something more spontaneous, fluid and temperamental; or it’s simply a bloated track that takes too long to get to where it needs to be. Either way, it’s those two minutes that leave the best impact, and it’s a relief that they carry the ending of the record so well.
ȘTIU NU ȘTIU overall do a pretty good job at creating something with sentiment and meaning in New Sun. Its representation of human creativity and darkness is lush and serene without compromising on the sinister. However the record does fall into the trap of allowing too much self-indulgence in its intros to capture uncertain listeners, and will deter anyone who’s unwilling to wait for a payoff. That being said, what it does get right, it gets right in an undeniably authentic way.
Rating: 6/10
New Sun is set for release on July 1st via Heavy Psych Records.
Like ȘTIU NU ȘTIU on Facebook.