Bandcamp Stonus arrive with a strong pedigree: a decade as one of Cyprus’s most internationally active rock bands, a sophomore album on Ripple Music mastered by Howie Weinberg, and a torus-field concept about diving into the space within. What Space to Dive actually sounds like, though, is looser to the “desert stoner” label than the scene it comes from suggests. Across ten tracks this is a modern, melodic heavy-rock record, clean-sung with aggressive screams for contrast, polished and loud, closer to alt-metal and post-hardcore than to fuzzy Sabbath worship, and it is best taken on those terms.
On those terms it delivers. The vocals are the engine: intonation-solid, endlessly intelligible, swinging from melodic cleans into raw screams and sitting right up front with tasteful stereo delays widening the choruses. “In Loop” is the highlight, the one track that really breathes, moving from an intimate, spacious clean intro through genuine dynamic breaks and a well-placed solo, and “Tangerine” builds the same contrast between a dry, close verse and an enormous sludgy climax. When Stonus lean on that quiet-to-huge dynamic rather than sheer volume, they are a genuinely compelling band, and the surprise jazz-lounge instrumental closer “Steiermark” shows there is more range here than the riffs alone let on.
The catch is the master and the sameness. Most of Space to Dive is mixed hot and compressed, the drum transients on the densest tracks turning slightly sterile and quantized, and a recurring low-mid crowd around the 200-to-400 Hz band takes some air out of the choruses. More than that, several of the mid-record cuts blur into one modern-melodic-metal mode, competent and hooky but rarely surprising, so the album is stronger in its dynamic moments than across its full hour. It is well-made comfort-zone heavy rock more than the psychedelic dive its concept promises.
Space to Dive is a polished, well-sung, genuinely dynamic modern heavy-rock record from a hard-working Cypriot band, and for anyone who likes their heaviness melodic, clean-and-scream and radio-clear rather than fuzzed and hazy it is an easy, generous listen. Take it in its strongest tracks rather than one long sitting, and let “In Loop” and that strange jazz coda show you what they can really do.
A modern, melodic heavy-rock record, clean-sung with aggressive screams for contrast, polished and loud, closer to alternative metal and post-hardcore than the desert-stoner tag suggests. The vocals are the engine: intonation-solid, endlessly intelligible, swinging from melodic cleans into raw screams up front with tasteful stereo delays widening the choruses. “In Loop” is the highlight and the one track that really breathes, moving from an intimate spacious clean intro through genuine dynamic breaks and a placed solo, and “Tangerine” builds the same dry-verse-to-huge-climax contrast; the surprise lounge-jazz instrumental closer “Steiermark” shows real range. The reservations are the master and the sameness: most of the record is mixed hot and compressed, the drum transients on the densest tracks turning slightly sterile and quantized, a recurring 200 to 400 Hz low-mid crowd taking air out of the choruses, and several mid-record cuts blurring into one modern-melodic-metal mode. Stronger in its dynamic moments than across its full hour.
Standout tracks: In Loop, Tangerine, Steiermark
