Review: “The Weight of Sleep” by Cunabula

Some musicians are able to churn out a record every twelve months with consummate ease while others take their time to ensure that the reality matches their vision, taking a hammer and chisel to the rock face from which they carve their masterworks. For Lithuanian Progressive Sludge Post Metal act Cunabula, that carving has been a labour of love for the past six years after debut EP “Scar” was shared in 2017. Having begun their journey a year prior to that they have earned reputation for live performances leave listeners in a state of fear and hypnosis, the band described as a strange organism that breathes relentless darkness. Now they return with debut album “The Weight of Sleep“, recorded in no less than three Lithuanian studios, Lapės Records for drums, vocals at Black Box Recordings and lastly Agirdi Audio was used for guitar and bass. A Latvian artist, Gints Lundbergs (Dissection, Frailty, Skyforger) mixed and mastered while cover was created by Nojus Petrauskas…

…with their debut album Cunabula have followed in the footsteps of bands like Hundred Year Old Man in creating a truly immersive World of P0st-Metal that soaks you to the bone before burrowing its way through the eardrum to the cerebral cortex like a parasite. The gift that keeps giving, each repeated listen finds something new to appreciate that was there all along but the cluttered brain was unable to focus, still consumed by something else heard prior to it. Opening cut “Bruxa” finds vicious, caustic vocals from Goda “Godumi” Žukauskienė intertwining with thunderous percussive battery from drummer Vytis Vainilaitis alongside brutal slabs of Sludge tinged rhythm guitar work from Kostas Balčiūnas (Soul Stealer, Grol, Stranger Aeons) and Jurgis Sakalauskas (Pekla) for vast majority of the ten minute offering. But then as the storm subsides the soundscape transcends into aching melody and delicate beautiful clean vocals that are nothing short of stunning. On paper that might sound unnatural but the band have made the two pieces fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. “Drown to Become Water” returns to the fire breathing vocals and heavy guitars, the bass line from Tadas Žukauskas underpinning it all. Once again however the violent, turbulent storm subsides making way for rich melodies that stir the soul and shimmer in the melancholic light. That spellbinding almost shoegazing quality is mesmerising but this time the band snap the listener out of the trance with a thunderously dark and heavy final verse with a monumental crushing weight before an eerie moment that sets the tone for “We Are the Prey“. An anvil heavy walk through a post-apocalyptic wasteland to the rich dark melodies of self immolation, it finds the band continuing to paint in textures, elegant tempo shifts thinly veiled by the sounds of a monolithic beast rising from a tar pit.

Whispers in the rain bring “The Weight of Sleep” to life, an acoustic accompaniment reflecting nature to create an elegant solemn moment of respite unlike any title track ever witnessed. It’s also not the palate cleanser that you might expect either because “Silent Somber Suns” ushers in a new dawn of delicate aching melodies that are delicately balanced and yet completely captivating. That lasts until the third minute of the ten that form this magnum opus, the delicate flower bursting into flame in spontaneous combustion as Godumi’s cleans transcend into throat splitting uncleans and the demon is once again resurrected. There are curious hints and fleeting flourishes of sprawling influences, riffs for worshipping and entrancing extended instrumental passages all wrapped within the murky darkness and all of it is utterly spellbinding. A grand finale “Sh’eenaz” is the longest of these burnt offerings surpassing eleven minutes and it also serves as the most eclectic as it creeps up on Avant-garde like a psycho killer in search of a victim. Melodic and heavy in equal measure it divides and subdivides in movements with Godumi reaching unhinged new heights of vocal performance that border on the theatrical. Another melodic meandering ushers in a final third of utter devastation, as a tsunami of sinister edged Sludge Metal riffs destroys everything in its path. The contrasts are stunning and the dedication to craft something to be applauded. Now they just need a suitable stage to present this to the World from [8/10]

Track Listing

1. Bruxa
2. Drown to Become Water
3. We Are the Prey
4. The Weight of Sleep
5. Silent Somber Suns
6. Sh’eenaz

“The Weight of Sleep” by Cunabula is out 11th August 2023 via Sleaszy Rider Records with pre-orders available here.