Rise to the Sky – Two Years of Grief Review

The last time Sergio Catalán released a full-length album—only four months ago, because of course—I opened my review with a rhetorical question: Sergio González Catalán—can anyone stop this man? Does anyone want to? Now, in June of 2023, the answer is clear: only Sergio can stop Sergio, and today, in a sense, he has chosen to act. Two Years of Grief, the sixth full-length release from his solo project Rise to the Sky marks an end to a “series” he began two years ago on the passing of his father, Sergio González Bombardiere. Now, on the recent birth of his son¹, Rise to the Sky marks the end of two years of grief with an uplifting idea, and cause for celebration.

Of course, none of this is to say Two Years of Grief is a happy album—it’s not. This is classic Rise to the Sky, death-doom metal with both blackened and funereal touches that act as an effective channel for Catalán’s grief. The rhythm guitars are grittier and more subdued this time around, allowing weepy cleans to take a spotlight, and they’ve never been more effective. At times, Two Years of Grief sounds inspired by classic melodeath acts such as Insomnium; on tracks like the opener, “Funeral for My Home,” it’s easy to get lost in hypnotic, desperate melodies. Here, the harsh roars take almost a backseat to these lead lines, and it works really well. Even when Winds of Tragedy influence seeps in, where the music takes on a blackened doom kind of quality (as on “Burdened by Grief”), the subtle strings and painstaking vocals quietly remind that this is, at its heart, grieving, pained doom metal.

In the past, I’ve commented that Rise to the Sky often plays things too safe; that the project’s evolution takes place at a glacial pace befitting of its music. On Two Years of Grief, that evolution continues. The clean singing on “Can’t Hide from Pain,” the way the title track sounds heavy without using electric guitars, and the increasingly impressive drums from Emidio Alexandre (especially towards the end of “I Knew that Joy Would Die”) mark improvements in Catalán’s songwriting ability. Still, this is a Rise to the Sky album, and if you’ve heard any of the last four from the project, you know what to expect here. Front and center, Catalán’s cold roars battle clean guitar leads for dominance, fighting to bring the most misery to the music. It’s familiar, yes—but if there’s one thing Rise to the Sky has proven time and again, it’s that this project just gets its own sound, and knows how to use it as effectively as is possible.

On the other hand, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, and to some extent, that exists here. “Becoming Flesh and Bone” opens with some acoustic guitar before launching into a five-minute doom number that feels much longer. Drawn-out guitar chords, drawling roars, and elongated strings are all fine for building sorrowful atmosphere, but the style of this music is such that each song absolutely needs something to set it apart, lest it sound stale. “Becoming Flesh and Bone” (and, to a lesser extend, the aforementioned “I Knew That Joy Would Die”) could easily appear on any other Rise to the Sky album or EP, in any place, and fit in just fine. This is the downside to releasing so much music so quickly—the demand for something new feels, perhaps unfairly, strong on an album of this level.

Still, it’s hard to argue with the results. Two Years of Grief ends with a simple declaration making up the title of its closing track: “From My Blood I Bring You Home.” This beautiful idea feels like the ideal one to end the album, and indeed the series, on.² There is a level of catharsis here that hasn’t been so strongly present on previous releases, and it does much to elevate Two Years of Grief to stand, easily, among Catalán’s best.

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Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Meuse Music Records
Websites: risetothesky.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/RisetotheSkyBand
Releases Worldwide: June 16th, 2023