In a world overstimulated by surface signals and synthetic truths, Hypostasis, the latest offering from Finnish post-metal four-piece Sunniva, demands something else entirely: stillness, confrontation and depth. This isn’t music designed to entertain—it’s crafted to initiate.
Across six monolithic tracks, Sunniva conducts a metaphysical excavation into the fractures of the self, the illusions of society and the heavy gravity of being. Like its title suggests, Hypostasis explores the underlying layers of existence, peeling back cultural veneers to reveal the raw, trembling essence of what it means to be alive.
Formed in Turku, Finland, in 2016, Sunniva has since carved out a path of relentless sonic exploration. Their name—derived from the Old English Sunngifu (“sun” + “gift”)—perfectly encapsulates the band’s tonal contrasts: light and shadow, serenity and terror, ritual and rawness. Drawing from the depths of sludge metal, the brooding pace of death doom, and the sweeping scale of post-metal, their sound echoes the weight and wonder of genre heavyweights like Neurosis, Amenra, Cult of Luna, YOB and Thou.
From the very first moments, Hypostasis makes its purpose clear: this is no mere album, but a rite of passage—a journey through the elemental strata of the human and spiritual condition. Musically, it is a bottom-heavy colossus—built on pounding grooves, meditative repetition and layers of oppressive atmosphere. Tribal percussion, sacral soundscapes, clean vocals and ambient textures elevate the record beyond brute force, lending it a ritualistic gravity that feels both earthbound and transcendent. It’s a sound forged deep within the belly of the earth, yet constantly gazing skyward. Thematically, it traverses technological disillusionment, spiritual fragmentation, existential collapse and the faint glimmers of transcendence. The tone is often suffocating—by turns elegiac and furious—but always intensely purposeful.
“Mercurial Bloodstreams” sets the stage with an unrelenting pulse. Guttural growls coil over mid-paced, bottom-heavy grooves and spectral textures—tolling bells and uncanny soundscapes hailing from somewhere in the distant or far down below. It’s both hypnotic and crushing, its cadence deeply ritualistic. Lyrically, it critiques modern illusions of progress and freedom in the age of technological dominance. Sunniva contends that we’re sold liberation but delivered invisible chains: “Choking the will, so we can feel free.” The opener lays the philosophical bedrock for what follows—a world lost in illusions.
This is followed by “Peine Forte Et Dure”—suffocation incarnate. Its name referring to a method of torture in former times, in which a defendant who refused to plead would be subjected to having heavier and heavier stones placed upon their chest until a plea was entered, or death resulted. A slow, pounding assault of riffs, growls and agonized shouts evokes the crushing of spirit beneath mounting societal and internal pressures. A sinister groove underpins the torment, while eerie soundscapes swell from the periphery. Its climax, a chilling chant in the aether, hints at a dark communion before collapsing into solitary dread. “Crushed under the weight / This life enslaved” the lyrics echo, driving home the suffocating sense of a self, pulverized by unseen forces.
A moment of fleeting light emerges during “Valovaltimo”. Meaning “artery of light,” the third track introduces a powerful contrast—between destruction and renewal. This bilingual offering in Finnish and Swedish flows between tribal rhythms and pummeling riffs on one hand, electronic flourishes and clean melodic clarity on the other. There’s a melancholic serenity in some of the background vocals and a cosmic sweep in the sound, especially in the refrain, suggesting spiritual and ecological rebirth amidst decay: “Valtimossa valoa joka virtaa meissä kaikissa” (“In the artery, light flows in all of us.”). The track ends with two special guest appearances. First Callisto´s very own Markus Myllykangas provides a brief ominous interlude with a three-stringed Blues Box guitar before Lotta Green from the magnificent Blackened Post-Hardcore/Screamo band Svarta Havet sets in with an intense and powerful guest vocal appearance. Svarta Havet being another local socio-critical heavyweight from the Turku area that has recently released an impressive debut album on Prosthetic Records (”Månen Ska Lysa Din Väg” / “The Moon Shall Light Your Way”). Taking all into account, “Valovaltimo” evokes a more straightforward and Post-Metal -ish version of Oranssi Pazuzu.
“Opening The Key” functions as a kind of threshold thereafter—an incantation to deeper realms. It opens with ethereal bells and a brooding bassline, gradually spiralling into a sphere of oppressive riffwork and spectral melodies underneath. A funereal march of the heaviest order. The tone is ominous yet ceremonial, as if unlocking unseen dimensions and shedding constructed identities. It’s a moment of unveiling, of dissolution, where the self begins to fracture and reform.
“Sun Funeral” follows this with a cosmic elegy—spacious yet crushing. Clean singing and ambient textures float in and out of layers of sludge and melancholic melody building an atmosphere of mourning, of longing for something irretrievably lost. It feels like a lament for something larger than life—the death of light, of hope, or perhaps divinity itself. “After the sun sets / We bend our heads / And dream in darkness” the lyrics proclaim, capturing the emotional heart of the album, perfectly conveyed by guest singer Irene Hovi (Tiny Vacation / Airiin) at the end of the track, after which it slowly fades out into bliss.
The closing chapter “Hung From The Sky” is both apocalyptic and redemptive. It begins with restraint but soon erupts into melodic Post-Metal -intensity in the vein of bands like Cult of Luna and fellow Turkurians Callisto. Vocals shift between guttural growls, shouts and clean chants, expressing the dualities of despair and grace, body and spirit. Guitars shimmer over stabbing rhythms as the track ascends toward a celestial climax: “The self slowly lifted out / And hung from the sky.” After a GY!BE like ascension march, both “Hung From The Sky” and the entire album, end in distorted ambiguity, unresolved, suspended—abruptly leaving the listener with reverberating questions rather than answers.
On the album each track acts as a hypostasis—a distinct facet of a larger, fractured reality. Together, they map a transformative arc through technological delusion and lost agency, psychospiritual repression and struggle and moments of clarity, transcendence and dissolution. Whether echoing the livor mortis of cultural decay or invoking the hypostatic union of divinity and mortality, Hypostasis serves as a mirror to the fragmented, layered nature of modern identity.
This is not an easy listen—nor should it be. Hypostasis is a sonic rite, a deliberate unravelling of self and world that rewards the committed listener with catharsis, resonance, and revelation. It’s an album that asks for patience and gives back meaning. For fans of Neurosis, Amenra, Cult of Luna, Thou, Minsk, Dark Buddha Rising and other Sludge/ Post-Metal visionaries, Sunniva emerges as a distinct voice—steeped in Finnish gloom, spiritual symbolism and immense sound design. This is metal with meaning. A heavy gift of the sun, buried in shadow.
