Sunforger - Weight
Cooked Raw/Julia’s War
Sunforger, the Montreal based jangle-infused Post-Punkesque four-piece consisting of Spencer Curtis, Piper Curtis, Chris Hauer and Kier Graham, return with their third effort and second under the Sunforger name - 'Mono No Aware' would be the name of Sunforger's game until 2020. Weight - tentatively titled I Hate It Here - was recorded and Produced by Preoccupations' Scott "Monty" Munro at Studio Saint Zo in Montreal. The Auspices EP which was released in July of 2025 served as a bridge between their 2023 self-titled record and now; a mediator between two points in time.
The album opens on the sub-two-minute sounds of "Dig". Bursts of feedback shine through like light through brooding clouds. Hope amidst uncertain times. The hope is better than where you're at, but still of a negative bent. A foot forwards is a foot forwards, but not necessarily a foot out.
'I will find out
Dig myself out'
Nobody jangles quite as nerdily as Sunforger. "Make Peace" holds all the handfuls of pent-up restraint as humanly possible. Bloodied knuckles from heaving the weight. Trails like that of a blood-slug slimily trace each and every step.
'You can't go back. Yeah, I know that.'
Dragging your feet, as it's the only way forwards. The road does not rise to meet you; it is hellbent on you meeting it. Every breath comes with a harsh hum. Cracked cuticles. Split-ends and burnt lungs.
"Hesitate" clocks in as the shortest track on the album at one-minute-and-seven-seconds - there are four sub-two-minute tracks and a further two tracks at a sub-three-minute mark. It's an album fit for modern attention spans, although that's not to say that the tracks aren't fleshed out and fit for a purpose other than pleasing goldfish.
Sunforger.
Lead singles in "Say Sorry" and "30" respectively appear in third and seventh place in the tracklist.
The riffs on "30" were written the day after Spencer Cutis' 30th birthday. The song, as per Sunforger's Instagram, is 'about being cool with who you are but not where you're at.' It seems to be a reasonable view on life at 30 in all honesty - after turning 30 myself back in the early days of 2026, the feeling lingers quite a lot.
'And when it was done I cried
I did the most, I tried
One more thing a day
And I liked it that way'
Your best isn't looked at as something worth the time put in, by others, or yourself. A quiet resilience as the results seem far off; one day, yes, one day.
"30", somewhat split into two halves, slowly creeps up and into this ever-dissonant state. A two-minute wave of crumbling distortion crashes through as to wash and wipe the listener out.
The instrumental "Mountains of Pain", with its breezy, reflective disposition, takes us into the final two tracks on Weight.
Penultimate track "Window 2 Window" is a cover of a Fire-Toolz track which is featured on her 2017 album Interbeing.
Title track and album closer "Weight" emanates a chugging indecisiveness. Do I, don't I? Stand still or move on? Move in or move out? Life is there to be lived, but it's impossible to know what's in it for you.
'The crushing weight
Of these years I gave'
Sunforger are once again seated upon their existential throne of burnt-out essence.
