Haze of Summer

Haze of Summer

Stuzha

March 1st, 2019

The most recent recording by this band (Russia) is a boatload of fun, upbeat music. If you want to hear melodic extreme music that will make you feel good, and why not, make you want to dance, then things will not get much better than this recording in extreme metal. It is done remarkably well, and let’s find out why. As a way to rebel against the uptight, cranky metal music rules, they call themselves “hipster black metal.” They have no lyrics about dragons in the rainbows’ dungeons and there are otherworldly demons and devils here, either. Human emotions and relationships is the substance of the lyrics in Russian. An online translation shows a general style of poetic lyrics about love, lost love, the loneliness of the seasons, including a poem by the classic Russian writer Pushkin. The music is melodic extreme metal, but this label does not even begin to scratch the surface of what is going on.

The music is fun and upbeat and a main reason is the free nature of the melodies. The drumming is extreme metal drumming, but with a beat, and then there’s the guitars which go far in delivering an abundance of melodies that sound like happiness. That’s just the beginning because it’s all going to get even better. The band uses fun keyboards melodies and this practically bursts at the seams. There’s more. They have invited friends to play horns (and other instruments) and this takes things to a greater level of catchiness. Black metal + fun keyboards + saxophone, trumpets, violin, accordion + more = Haze of Summer.

They also have done something that some of us have been wondering about. At least for some of us, this is new and very cool: the band has gone and made a performance video of the entire recording from start to finish. Of course, this may not be new to you if you have seen many bands do this already, but it’s new to some of us, and it’s pretty cool. You can hear the entire recording on Bandcamp or be entertained by the whole recording performed as a long video on YouTube. If you want something fun, really fun, then your stop bus is here. Your ticket is Haze of Summer.

hazeofsummer.bandcamp.com/album/stuzha