Review: Știu Nu Știu ‘New Sun’

Hailing from Stockholm Sweden, Știu Nu Știu follows 2019’s Sick Sad Love with New Sun, their first album to be released on Heavy Psych Sounds. New Sun is 48 minutes of psych-fuelled post-punk where, in the band’s own words, ‘noise needs to give way to structure and focus’. A quite fitting description as noisy guitar and synth layers seem to complete the sound and the forceful rhythms created by tight drums and bass patterns.

Știu Nu Știu 'New Sun'

The sounds on New Sun are gloomy and certainly psych-fuelled with droning basslines and tight drum patterns being the only constant, while noisy guitars and synths fill the gaps in between. The opening track Styx pictures this right from the beginning with repetitive and hypnotic drum and bass patterns being the driving force. A solid opening track that’s also full of contrast, thanks to the guitars and synths. Going from a tight and accentuated riff, to a fuzzy and noisy outburst towards the end, Știu Nu Știu really encapsulates the gloomy atmosphere for the rest of the album.

One of the highlights for me is the lead single Transcend, it stands out as the most well written track in terms of riffs and capturing atmospheres. Starting off with a massively heavy riff, combined with layered vocals and dissonant guitar leads, it’s easily the most intense and grand sounding cut on the album. These noisy and dissonant guitars are used a lot throughout the album, adding a sense of chaos, on Zero Trust for instance, where it’s central to the main riff. This dissonance carries on through the entire song, ending with a wild post-punk-esque, almost narcotic outro where everything dissolves into noise.

The sounds on New Sun are gloomy and certainly psych-fuelled with droning basslines and tight drum patterns…

As well as this works on some of the tracks, it does become a drawback when listening to the album in its entirety: The use of noisy, dissonant guitars appears on almost every track, along with very similar song structures. It becomes difficult to really differentiate the songs as some of these ideas get reused. It certainly shows on some of the longer tracks, like the title track, New Sun, and Dragon’s Lair, which is a shame as there are some decent riffs and ideas across these. The problem for me is the lack of variation throughout the album that makes it difficult to really connect with it.

There are loads of great sounds and ideas on New Sun, and it’s by no means a bad album, but as many of the songs are similar in terms of structure and sound it does become a bit underwhelming in the end. Overall, it’s well executed and the production is great, so I’ll say it’s worth a listen, even though it didn’t really connect with me.

Label: Heavy Psych Sounds
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram

Scribed by: Emil Damgaard Andersen