Angst and Loss in New Blood: A Reflection on Rise to the Sky — “Two Years of Grief”

When I was younger, I was told that there’s a saying that all Chileans, like salmons, will return to their place of origin and eventually die. Although odd, I found this saying to be somewhat endearing: salmons do a salmon run, where they swim back against the current to spawn, and then they die, restarting the salmon life cycle. To compare Chileans with salmons is quite the stretch, but this idea – someone reaching the end of their life and new life spawning – brings me to Chilean band Rise To The Sky’s seventh full-length, Two Years of Grief.

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Album Review: Rise To The Sky – “Every Day, A Funeral”

rise to the sky - every day a funeral

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.

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Receiving the Evcharist: Worm and Breakaway Beerworks

Receiving the Evcharist 2018

Receiving the Evcharist is our weekly feature where I don’t just talk about a new metal album, I also consume and talk about alcohol! Sometimes they pair up nicely, sometime they don’t. My cup of heresy runneth over this week with: Foreverglade from Worm and Ukiyo from Breakaway Beerworks.

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Receiving the Evcharist: Primitive Man and Brewer’s Best Scottish Ale Homebrew Recipe Kit

Receiving the Evcharist 2018

Hey all. It’s Jon, freshly cast out from the land of the employed, and finally ready to stare into the doom that awaits us. Drink from the cup of heresy.  This week’s offering: Immersion, the latest from Primitive Man and my first attempt using the Brewer’s Best Scottish Ale Homebrew Recipe Kit.

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Album Review: Soliloquium — “Things We Leave Behind”

Soliloquium - Things We Leave Behind

There’s a fine line between the intricacies and atmospheric leanings of doom and the fast, riff-like insistence of death metal that few bands seen to walk these days. While Swallow The Sun comes to mind in regards to bands that represent the death-doom handle, some don’t come close to that comparison. Many, in fact, seem to lean into the tropes of one genre or another, leading to a sonic mess that weighs on the listener for the wrong reasons. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case with Soliloquium, a band whose album, Things We Leave Behind, not only walks that fine line of death-doom but also seems to embody it through its rather bleak and poignant lyrics. Continue reading