Sur Austru – Datura Străhiarelor (Review)

Sur Austru are an atmospheric black/folk metal band from Romania and this is their third album.

Datura Străhiarelor is the 54-minute follow up to 2019’s Meteahna Timpurilor and 2021’s Obârșie. Sur Austru’s path is not a well-trodden one, and on this new album the band have travelled further into the wilderness, to great effect.

Datura Străhiarelor ably combines atmospheric, folk, doom, and progressive elements into a distinctive blackened whole that’s striking. It’s not really black metal, but nor is it really any of the other genre tags completely. At this point Sur Austru essentially around like themselves; although you can certainly hear the music’s component parts, the way they’re arranged and delivered belongs to the band alone.

The album sounds warm, organic, and three-dimensional – it’s almost as if you can reach out and touch the various instruments. Musically it has an abundance of character, and this is also true of the vocals; they’re expressive and as individual as the music. As always, I’m not a fan of the use of spoken word, but honestly, for an album as individual as this, it’s not an issue – it perfectly fits with the personality of the singer’s voice and of the album as a whole.

Compared to Sur Austru’s past material, there’s been an increase in the levels of complexity in these songs, making for intricate music that’s involved and compelling. The band’s progressive leanings have been given free reign to evolve, and the folk aspect of the music has broadened in scope and ambition. This means that Datura Străhiarelor is a very textured album with a great deal of detail. The variety of folk instruments, sounds, and influences, the well-considered songwriting, and the depth of worldbuilding that the band have undertaken is impressive. This last item is important to the success of Datura Străhiarelor – Sur Austru have meticulously crafted a vibrant, adventurous soundscape for the listener to explore, one that has a wealth of experiences to offer. The album benefits from a good flow that allows the music to take the listener on a rewarding journey.

Datura Străhiarelor is not going to be for everyone, as it is very idiosyncratic. If, however, you have a taste for folk-rich heavy music, then this is one you’ll definitely want to spend some time with. For me, Sur Austru continue to be one of the more notable bands out there, one that are continuing to develop a greater uniqueness than most of there peers. Datura Străhiarelor is the possibly band’s strongest work to date, so make sure that you check this record out.