Staytus is an artist of sounds and ambition. She imagines the unimaginable and executes her ideas with precision. Yes, her music is as mad as they are extreme and conflicting, but she sees beauty in the most unexpected place and captures the rarest sceneries into a sonic realization. As an artist, Staytus doesn’t waste her talent and skill. She brings heart into her music. In her debut album of Disease of the Mind, she tackles trauma, mental heath, and modern struggles, bringing her sound closer to the matters that deserve to be talked about more.

The album opens with a sonically unlikely spectacle, a drastic visual in the characteristic serrated drums of strings. The album opener takes off as if a vulture made out of swords and metallic tubes. Industrial meets metal meets grunge in the most daring form. Staytus’s vocal refuses to obey the rule of melodies. She refuses to please anyone but to be something of her own. The beauties of disobedience aggression and extreme present themselves with a twist of dark satisfaction. Before you know, you already fall in love.

From “An Echo in Space,” Staytus takes on a splitting contrast between micro-tonal dissonance and classic resonance while she dances with metal and grunge in a dark whirlwind of chaos and deterioration. The track feels like Kurt Cobain screaming in hell. It has that hauntingly chilly vibe in her vocals.

Maniacally absurdist seems to be one word to describe an aspect of this album. It also carries the genre breaking daring news of Nine Inch Nail. “Arrhythmia” provokes a Linkin Park’s style anthem in an end of world storm. Constant in full contrast with oneself, creatively and sonically. “Arrhythmia” is where her vocal goes to Courtney Love, hysterical with no holding back.

“Crawling” sees a wailing vocal in frying distortion, but highly relatable. “Don’t Die” on the other hand is bloody, violent, raw, and vulnerable. From there, an interesting merge between gaming culture and music become visible. It does make sense, the gunfire-infused, glass-breaking sonics become more palpable than ever. But the escalation and extreme isn’t just about the most obvious representation, it also processes a mental energy that sheds light on psychological struggles.