Three Suns – Desu Taem (reviewed by the Night Writer)

Having fired off Narcissist as a statement of intent that they look more to the past to make their music than the present, with their latest single, Three Suns, Desu Taem head down a deeper, darker, more brooding sonic rabbit hole. The last single was a neat slice of garage rock, all about the boogie-some groove, energy and incendiary vibes. Three Suns is an altogether more considered affair.

Sitting somewhere in the realms of early heavy metal, a bluesy take on early Sabbath perhaps, a more epic Zeppelin-esque sonic meandering, or even an early Floydian, claustrophobic dreamscape, it also builds bridges to more recent stoner rock scenes, its cool, calm and collected deliveries perhaps reminiscent of the nascent Desert Palm sound.

It is a song built on louche swagger rather than boisterous beats, taking you by the hand and slowly leading you down a path of coiled riffs and spaciousness, choppy acoustic guitars, restrained beats and melodic bass lines. A song that develops an epic sense of style through slow-burning intensity rather than laying all its cards on the table from the outset. And the building of this atmosphere and sense of anticipation means that the listener is always waiting for the sonic payoff, the big reveal, the explosive third act. But Desu Taem is smart enough not to deliver it, thereby keeping the listener on the edge of their seat throughout.

None other than Alfred Hitchcock once said that the difference between an action movie and a suspense story is having placed a bomb under the table in an opening scene, whether it goes off or not. If it does, you are in an action movie; if you spend the whole film waiting for the explosion, it is suspense. Three Suns is certainly the latter.

But more than that, between Three Suns and Narcisuss, it is clear that Desu Taem can cover a lot of musical ground, so the only question is where they will go next. I guess that we will have to wait and see.