Band:	Cabiria
Album:	How Long's The Drive?
Style:	Post-rock, Post-metal
Release date:	September 27, 2024
A review by:	musclassia

01. The Visitor
02. Infinite Bridges
03. Blue Grid
04. No Signal
05. Beksiń
06. A Night In Baraka
07. Avala
08. Reminisce
09. Interim [feat. March & Ash Woolnough]

As much as I find myself increasingly drawn towards bands and albums that straddle genres and create altogether new sounds, there’s still joy to be found in a band writing familiar-sounding music to a high standard.

Cabiria are an up-and-coming instrumental post-rock/metal band from London, and one that I discovered courtesy of sharing a concert bill with them a couple of years ago. A mutual musical appreciation has developed between this band and my own (Vulgaris) across a couple more shows performed together (and in the interests of acknowledging potential bias due to a personal acquaintance with the group, I’m refraining from rating this review), particularly as new material written by the band appeared in newer setlists. The trio’s sophomore album, How Long's The Drive?, comes three years after debut release Rust & Grey, and represents a marked step up in terms of production value, along with maturation on the songwriting front.

I have previously mentioned on this site my lack of interest in traditional-sounding releases from new bands in saturated genres such as thrash and OSDM, and even post-metal, a style I am inherently fonder towards, is not immune from the effects of oversaturation, as acknowledged in a couple of my 2023 reviews. The music on How Long's The Drive? is easily recognizable as belonging to this scene, but Cabiria demonstrate sufficient songwriting nous to accomplish a level of memorability in their songs that many of their peers still aspire towards.

As far as instrumental bands that straddle the post-rock/post-metal divide are concerned, one of the first names to come to mind for many will be Russian Circles, and they are an easy first point of comparison for Cabiria’s sound, not least due to both being trios that make effective use of guitar looping live. However, the London trio incorporate enough in the way of other influences into their sound to avoid excessive drawing of parallels. From the off, the first ‘full’ track on the record, “Infinite Bridges”, allows drummer Kye Phillips to flex his skills with a jazzy full-kit workout above gradually escalating guitar textures. Drums aside, there’s a lot of restraint exhibited on this track for a prolonged period of time, but the stringed instrumentalists are equally adept on the prog front, as Cabiria eventually shift into a rhythmically complex riff that bears a certain resemblance to the classic genre song “The Beginning And The End” by Isis.

I wouldn’t go as far as to categorize Cabiria as a progressive post-metal band in the Pelagic Records mould, but the prog touches in their writing do add a certain something, particularly as the group are also capable of both expansive atmosphere and satisfying heaviness. Additionally, while most of the tracklist is comprised of songs crossing the 5-minute barrier, they’re also capable of more compact writing, as exhibited on “Blue Grid Test”, which opens with melodic guitar tapping but descends into crunching riffs rendered with convoluted math rock rhythms; although songs and passages on How Long's The Drive? are recognizable as post-rock, the group’s metal pedigree should not be overlooked, and “Blue Grid Test” is a firm demonstration of this.

The album is a consistently solid listen throughout, but there are a couple of songs that do capture one’s attention more so than others on initial listening. “Beksiń” was selected as the advance single from the record, and for understandable reasons; the isolated, ringing synth tones during the ‘verses’ of the song give off slight Vertikal vibes, and trade off nicely with hard-hitting riffs in the ‘chorus’, while the classic post-metal build into the song’s climax is a great joy, and probably the strongest example of such a build across the album.

The other song of particular note is the closer “Interim”, as this deviates from the ‘instrumental post-metal’ template by having not one but two vocalists on it. On the one hand, march (aka Kitty O’Neal) lends dulcet tones to a sparse, understated first half to the song, while Ash Woolnough matches the subsequent escalation of instrumental intensity with post-hardcore screams and cleans to close the album out with the proclamation of its title. This song represents new territory for the group, not just in the inclusion of vocals but also in how the song is crafted; there are a couple of rough moments to acknowledge here, as the transition between the section containing march’s vocals and the rest of the song is a bit jarring, and Woolnough’s vocals do sound a tad muddy on the production front. However, the dainty tremolos and the climactic gang vocals on the track work really nicely.

As far as the question of ‘How Long's The Drive?’ is concerned, listeners’ mileage will vary depending on their appreciation of post-rock/metal that exhibits many of the genre’s established hallmarks. Those who do enjoy the sound will find Cabiria’s new album to be clearly above-average for the style, with memorable hooks, a healthy amount of inter-song variety, and compelling atmospheres.