When his father passed away Sergio González Catalán was bereft and consumed with grief. He poured his sorrow into a sequence of remarkable albums under the banner of Rise To The Sky, his solo project of atmospheric and emotional doom/death metal. Beginning with 2021s Per Aspera Ad Astra and continuing through the following year’s Every Day, A Funeral and Stay With Me When You’re Gone, he charted his journey through the seas of sorrow, a journey he could never foresee coming to an end. However, Sergio has now welcomed his own son into the world and that new life has enabled him to feel reconnected with his father. The new Rise To The Sky album is still deeply touched by loss, but it also begins to tell the story of finally reaching the distant shores where life once more starts to have meaning…
Two Years Of Grief is perhaps the most powerful and emotive Rise To The Sky album that Sergio has created since he began this project back in 2019. As always his unflinching honesty of expression allows the full force of his emotions to speak through the music – be that in songs like ‘Burdened By Grief’ and ‘I Knew That Joy Would Die’, rife with spirit crushing anguish, or in the breathtaking ‘From My Blood, I Bring You Home’, the superlative song where the first sliver of sunlight pierces the darkness and the possibility of hope springs anew. Whereas bleakly glorious albums like Every Day, A Funeral have been magnificent in their absolute despair and desolation, Two Years Of Grief is able to offer an additional dimension in its sound, to tell a story which moves from the depths of melancholy to the beginnings of the long climb back to the light. Sergio’s goal with Rise To The Sky has always been a simple one – “deliver emotional, strong, and honest doom metal” – and with Two Years Of Grief he has done that like no other.
As always, Sergio has been assisted in his work by producer Filippos Kolipanos (Ocean of Grief, On Thorns I Lay) and drummer Emidio Alexandre Ramos (Adamantine, Colosso and Dark Oath) and their individual contributions to Rise To The Sky have never been finer. Their intuitive understanding of what Sergio’s work demands has developed as he has grown as an artist. Also immersed in the creation of Two Years Of Grief is Natalia Drepina, who created the haunting cover artwork and contributed lyrics and vocals to the album’s title track. Two Years Of Grief will be released by Meuse Music Records and Tragedy Productions on June 16th, marking the ending of one story and the beginning of another, a pivotal point in the tale of Rise To The Sky and the incredible career of Sergio González Catalán.
The video for first single ‘Funeral For My Home‘ can be seen now at Invisible Oranges
https://www.invisibleoranges.com/rise-to-the-sky-video/
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