Written By Chris Norris
In Stoned Jesus Songs To Sun, this feels less like an album and more like a fault line being exposed.
With Songs to Sun, the first chapter in a three-part cycle, Igor Sydorenko took years of scattered ideas and split them into something more deliberate: three distinct worlds – aggressive, introspective, and expansive.
“The result is a record that feels grounded, but never settled – like it’s shifting under its own weight.”
It’s driven by heavy riffs, melodic hooks, and a quiet sense that something underneath is shifting.
Released September 2025, Songs to Sun arrived during a period of change for the band, shaped by a new lineup and the lingering weight of displacement.
But instead of collapsing under that pressure, Stoned Jesus pushed forward, faster, heavier, and more experimental than before.
We spoke with Sydorenko about creative reinvention, confronting the past, and how a band evolves when the ground beneath it never quite stays still.
For a deeper dive into the album itself, check out our full Stoned Jesus Songs to Sun album review here.
Thanks for taking the time to speak with us, we know you’re on tour and already moving toward the next chapters of the trilogy, so we appreciate you carving out the time.
Stoned Jesus Songs To Sun Interview: Creative Evolution
Metal Lair: When you realized the material naturally split into three paths, aggressive, moody, and epic – did that feel like a relief, or did it force you to admit that one album was never going to be enough for what Stoned Jesus had become?
Igor Sydorenko: Hey, thanks for such a great first question! I’m really peculiar with the concepts for every album (even when they’re not concept albums in a general sense of the word), so having one shaped early on is always a relief. But there’s also always a little room to dance around the concept, it’s never 100% concrete.
Metal Lair: Now that Songs to Sun has been out in the world for a while, what part of it feels most “true” to you in hindsight and did anything on the album reveal itself differently once people started living with it?
Igor Sydorenko: Honestly, I’m kinda surprised about the level of attention the deep cuts like “Lost In The Rain” and “Quicksand” are getting! The first one is an unapologetically proggy personal ballad, and the other is even more personal and experimental (very Swans/Neurosis-influenced actually), both are hardly future crowd pleasers – but seeing this reaction we might consider playing them live one day
Metal Lair: You’ve mentioned Songs to Sun shows the heavier, more aggressive side of the band, but it also has some of your catchiest hooks and most immediate melodies. Do you see heaviness and accessibility as tension points, or do you think the best Stoned Jesus songs work precisely because they let those things collide?
Igor Sydorenko: Again, thanks a lot for your attention to the details! It’s exactly that, I don’t think the catchiness would be noticed well without the heaviness and vice versa, they work so well together while in contrast. Also, me not being a fan of modern metal’s “heavy for heavy’s sake” approach explains a lot I guess. I would’ve never written a song without a hook, I love choruses too much!
Metal Lair: A lot of this record seems haunted by uncertainty – quicksand, falling, losing ground, but you’ve also been clear that you’re not interested in writing blunt, point-A-to-point-B songs. What does atmosphere allow you to say that a more literal lyric never could?
Igor Sydorenko: It’s cool to have some room for interpretation, because I myself ain’t always sure what I want to say exactly… I learned to write that way during Pilgrims (2018), because I was dealing with a lot of personal stuff, but addressing it directly and literally would’ve hardly helped. After all, we’re writing songs here, not starting therapy, aren’t we?
And yeah, from all the ‘fallings’ and the ‘quicksands’ you can kinda guess that it’s not all rainbows and ponies in my head, and the guys in the band relating to this really shows that we’re all going through stuff at some point in our lives. But even being this vague about it already helps me to deal with it, and I can only hope others feel the same
Metal Lair: There’s a fascinating contradiction around Songs to Sun: the songs wrestle with depression and people-pleasing but in interviews you’ve sounded almost exhilarated by the chemistry of this lineup. Did this lineup become a way of transforming that anxiety into momentum – or did it give you a way to finally outrun it?
Igor Sydorenko: Well, there’s an answer in your question already – it kinda helps that we’re all going through some tough times so we have to have each other’s backs. So it’s really inspiring and valuable even if I still talk about losing ground in my lyrics a lot.
Metal Lair: You’ve talked about revisiting older Stoned Jesus material – especially The Harvest, and even reworking pieces of your own musical DNA. Did making Songs to Sun feel at all like having a conversation with your younger self, or was it more like confronting him?
Igor Sydorenko: Kinda both, but mostly it was an interesting exercise from the technical viewpoint – how I was writing back then vs how I’d be writing now.
Maybe not much changed to a casual listener, while to me sometimes it felt like two different worlds colliding – but isn’t this tension also helps to spice up the experience a lot? I’m mostly satisfied with my recent songwriting decisions, but hey I also was back then, right? It’s an ongoing process, and the one I love with all my heart
Metal Lair: “Low” feels like a statement piece because it pushes into territory Stoned Jesus hadn’t fully embraced before – blast beats, harsh vocals and a more overt metal attack. Was that song written to test the limits of the band, or to prove that those limits were never real to begin with – or maybe never yours in the first place?
Igor Sydorenko: Oh yes, it was another exercise of sorts, just challenging my inner writer to come up with the most metal song we could perform – while not being a huge fan of metal myself. I guess it turned out alright but should we repeat the “blastbeats and screams” gimmick again? I don’t think so.
Metal Lair: You recorded Songs to Sun incredibly fast with a lineup that was still relatively fresh. What was it about your chemistry with Andrew and Yurii that made everything lock in so quickly – was it instinct, trust, or something deeper?
Igor Sydorenko: I mean me and Yurii knowing each other since 2008 probably helped, ahah! We’ve always wanted to play together and when the chance presented itself it was really something. Andrew is incredibly talented and flexible, so there was never a doubt about him fitting in, too.
The songs had been written years ago, so there was no problem with that. But also spending a lot of time together on tour and gushing over the same movies, books and especially music might’ve been the main bonding factor. Nothing beats singing along to Porcupine Tree and HIM on the van!
Metal Lair: You’ve said this is probably the happiest you’ve been creatively in Stoned Jesus. After everything the band has been through with lineup shifts, relocation, years of evolution, what does creative happiness actually look like for you now?
Igor Sydorenko: It’s always been about my vision and the ways of bringing it to people. I’m not the biggest fan of compromises and I’m very lucky now to play with the people who appreciate my ideas the way they are. May that pattern continue!
Metal Lair: If Songs to Sun is the sound of pushing outward with force, what do you hope listeners carry with them before the trilogy moves deeper into shadow and eventually into those side-long epics?
Igor Sydorenko: Going back to the beginning of this interview, I think I kinda failed a bit with the “heavy” concept for Songs To Sun, ahah – but it turned out even better!
This is my favourite SJ album at the moment, it’s so varied and interesting actually, and I’m really happy that I’m not the one holding it in such high regard. Huge thanks to everyone feeling the same, you make it all worthwhile! Now, let’s see how it’s going to go for Songs To Moon, ahahah
In this Stoned Jesus Songs To Sun interview, Igor Sydorenko breaks down the album and the bands evolving sound. They aren’t just expanding their sound – they’re testing how much weight it can carry before it fractures. And with two chapters still ahead, the ground hasn’t stopped shifting yet.
Purchase Stoned Jesus Songs To Sun At Season of Mist Shop
Vadym “Karaska” Karasiov
Tracklist:
1. New Dawn
2. Shadowland
3. Lost in the Rain
4. Low
5. See You on the Road
6. Quicksand
Full runtime:
Line-up:
Igor Sydorenko – Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Keyboards
Andrew Rodin – Bass, Backing Vocals
Yurii Ciel – Drums, Backing Vocals
Spring Equinox tour w/Wheel
4-8 – Madrid (ES) – Nazca
4-9 – Barcelona (ES)- Razzmatazz 2
4-10– Toulouse(FR) – Interference
4-11– Nantes (FR) – La Ferrailleur
4-12– Cognac (FR) – Les Abbatoirs
4-14 – Munich (DE) – Technikum
4-15 – Milano (IT) – Bloom
4-16 – Karlsruhe (DE) – Substage
4-17 – Luzern (CH) – Sedel
4-18 – Bologna (IT) – Alchemica
4-19-Vienna, (At) – Simm City
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About the Author
Chris Norris is the voice behind Metal Lair’s global metal coverage, from funeral doom in the north to thrash born in the streets. Known for spotlighting bands before algorithms notice them and for writing with the precision of a scalpel… or a well-sharpened guitar pick. Vinyl collector. Night-shift journalist. Believes heavy music has no borders.
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