Nine Circles

Ah, yes, summer: the weather is starting to get hot, days are longer, and irritability is the name of the game. As we approach the hot summer months, it’s almost a blessing to find that there are other countries approaching the arduous winter months. To this end, I have to give Chile props: there is something in its weather that leads to the yearning and romanticism of sadness and melancholy. Whether it is because of our corta venas nature or a sign of the times, we all have heeded the call of the void, but refuse to submit to it. It’s in this feeling and temporal space where Rise To The Sky presents their fifth album, Every Day, A Funeral, straddling the line between tension and levity.

Atmospheric death-doom is a tricky genre to define. If you go to one extreme, you end up in the sludgier and the more funeral aspects of doom, where the music can drag, slowly building up suspense. On the other extreme you have the more esoteric aspect of death metal, where the music lies between the experimental and the dissonant. Rise To The Sky walks the fine line between the dissonant and the funeral aspects, depending heavily on their atmosphere to build up the tension. Although there are moments where Rise To The Sky reminds me of bands like Paradise Lost and Swallow The Sun – especially on the grander and more complex aspects of their sound – I think it sits somewhere closer to Eye of Solitude, who play a more complex and layered version of funeral doom. However, unlike Eye of Solitude, Rise To The Sky like to ease their pressure and their load, allowing the listener to sit in their feelings for a while. Even during the tensest aspects of their delivery, especially when the vocals are at their lowest, the tranquility of the instrumentation and the layering of its various sounds give the album a highly reflective tone.

I also would like to take a moment to talk about the album’s production, which is incredibly well-done. Rise To The Sky’s mastering and mixing is superbly handled, as they are able to evoke emotion when it is needed. The music is levelled, the tonal shifts are seamless, and the vocals are top-notch, especially when it dips into their lowest tone. Hell, even the strings and synths used here sound amazing; this is the kind of string usage I like in my atmospheric genres. When bands are not afraid to utilize what they have, it allows them to fully explore their musical capacity.

All in all, Every Day, A Funeral is the kind of album that allows you to shut the world out for a while and bask within the confines of its space. Although this type of music is not for me, I can appreciate it for what it is, especially when it allows me to sit within its melancholy. Now that I have finished listening to this album, I understand why this particular band has gripped death-doom fans by the neck. Rise To The Sky makes music that sits with you long after its over. Kudos, compadre!

Hasta la proxima!

---

Every Day, A Funeral is available now from Meuse Music Records. For more information on Rise to the Sky check out their Facebook page.