Three years after the acclaimed Obârșie, Romanian folk/progressive black metal band Sur Austru is back with their third studio album, Datura Străhiarelor.
Sur Austru was born from the ashes of the late Negură Bunget, keeping alive their intent to bring Romanian lore into music. Datura Străhiarelor is the band’s most complex and ambitious project to date, the music heavily leaning on the progressive and folkloristic side, even more than before.
Datura Străhiarelor is Romanian for The Gift of Scarecrows” and is a concept album focusing on the Apocalypse triggered by magical beings from Romanian mythology. Their spells break the gate between the fantastic world and the real one, through which ancient beasts surge, thus annihilating humankind.
Haunting incantations and invocations, mesmerizing flutes, percussions and unpredictable guitar structures all blend together to craft a new fascinating journey through the Carpathians and beyond. If you ever loved masterpieces such as Negura Bunget’s Om or Dordeduh’s self-titled debut, as well as Enslaved’s most prog outputs, Datura Străhiarelor is an album you cannot miss.
To make this record even more special, the band joined forces with two young and talented local contemporary artists: painter Bogdan Țigan, who painted all the illustrations for the album, and poet Călin Miclauș, who wrote all the record lyrics. Both their work added a new dimension and texture to Sur Austru’s music. The album artwork and all the graphics are unique paintings that captured the identity of the music within. The lyrics are a deep dive into the Romanian lore, following years of dedicated study of the mystical traditions.
Datura Străhiarelor was recorded at Sur Austru and MagicSounds Studios by Cosmin Lupan, Adrian Oq Neagoe and Mihai Florea, mixed and mastered at Dreamsound Studios by Tibor Kati.
Sur Austru will bring Romanian folklore alive once again via Avantgarde Music, and their new opus will be available worldwide on CD, LP and digital on August 30th, 2024.
