“New Way Of Life” landed on December 26, 2025, and it already says a lot about where RusT are heading. The Bucharest-based shoegaze band frame the track as a step into a new musical direction, but it doesn’t arrive with any grand statement. Instead, it moves patiently: thick layers of distortion, drums that lean heavy rather than fast, and lyrics that stay deliberately inward.
RusT operate within shoegaze and alternative rock, with a clear grungegaze undercurrent. Their sound builds on dense guitar walls and reverb-drenched atmospheres, but it doesn’t blur everything into abstraction. There’s a sense of intention behind the haze — moments of clarity that surface briefly, then sink back into noise. The themes circle around memory, detachment, and a restrained emotional pressure rather than release.
The band formed at the beginning of 2024, when the two Mateis and Andrei met at their high school guitar club and decided to start playing together. The initial idea was simple: to make music that could bring joy and a subtle sense of nostalgia. That idea still sits quietly beneath their current output, even as the sound grows heavier and more introverted.
Making shoegaze and alternative music in Bucharest comes with its own kind of distance.
There isn’t a large, clearly defined local scene built around this sound, which pushes influences outward — online communities, old records, personal listening habits — rather than nearby trends.
At the same time, that isolation creates room to move freely. RusT aren’t reacting to a scene as much as working around its absence. The city seeps into the music in indirect ways: late nights, concrete spaces, a feeling of existing slightly off the main cultural current. The result feels inward-looking but not disconnected, shaped as much by what’s missing as by what’s present.
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“New Way Of Life” carries a specific origin story that fits its atmosphere. The band point directly to their fascination with David Lynch’s films, especially the Twin Peaks universe — a space that feels unsettling and beautiful at once. While writing the main riff, bassist Andrei was staying at his grandparents’ house in the mountains. One late summer night, sitting on the terrace and facing a dark forest lit by fireflies, he listened to “Dance of the Dream Man,” picked up his guitar, and wrote the intro riff. That fragment later became the foundation of the song once it entered the rehearsal room.
Lyrically, the track keeps things closed-in and reflective. There’s no attempt to over-explain or dramatize. The words sit inside the sound rather than on top of it, reinforcing the band’s more introverted approach. It feels less like a narrative and more like a state of mind — something half-formed, observed rather than resolved.
The single was released via Burning Bridges, a newly founded Bucharest-based label focused on supporting the local alternative scene. Beyond putting out records, Burning Bridges is also organizing shows, helping build a sense of connection and momentum within the underground. The band are clear that the project wouldn’t exist in its current form without Desvalido, co-founder of the label and guitarist of Take No More, whose involvement helped turn early ideas into something tangible.
The current lineup of RusT consists of Dumitru Alexia Georgiana on vocals, Niculae Matei Alin and Neacșu Rareș Ioan on guitars, Ghețu Andrei Alexandru on bass, and Marușca Matei Ioan on drums. Together, they balance volume and restraint, allowing the songs to feel expansive without losing their intimacy.
Looking ahead, the band plan to release more material throughout 2026 and are hoping to take these songs beyond Romania if circumstances align. The fact that “New Way Of Life” has already found listeners outside the country has been encouraging, hinting that this quiet, heavy sound might travel further than expected.
Within the wider Romanian underground, RusT also point toward a handful of projects worth attention.
Machedon are described as post-punk shaped by cold-wave shadows, somewhere between Molchat Doma and Lebanon Hanover.
Take No More stand as local hardcore mainstays with deep roots and consistency.
Not My Cup Of Tea represent one of the few other shoegaze acts in Bucharest, operating in a similarly narrow lane.
Brainwasher add a sharper, dance-punk edge to the landscape, driven more by momentum than atmosphere.
“New Way Of Life” documents a moment: a band settling into their own pace, leaning into weight, mood, and restraint, and letting the noise speak without forcing it to explain itself.
For now, it’s enough to sit with this track, let it linger, and see where the next songs land. If they keep following this inward pull, the next moves should say more than any announcement ever could.
Be sure to check out this playlist if you’re curious about how shoegaze is quietly taking shape across Eastern Europe.
