Review: Rise to the Sky – Let Me Drown With You

Review by Sandre the Giant

A one man atmospheric death/doom project from Chile, Rise to the Sky’s third album in the last 2 years is entitled ‘Let Me Drown With You’ and will be released in March through GS Productions. Released in tribute to the artist’s father who died suddenly recently, this just makes what you’re about to hear feel even more poignant and weighty.

Opener ‘See Me Fall Down’ doesn’t hang around before wringing weeping riffs from the guitar; a coupling of monolithic crush and mournful leads while a cavernous roar echoes above the maelstrom. What I really like about Rise to the Sky immediately is that their death/doom rumbling isn’t just crushing brutality, there’s multiple moments where the soaring guitar melodies drag you above the fog and darkness into a world of epic vistas. The clean guitar and swelling strings of ‘Dream the Pain is Gone’ is a fragile beauty, while the powerful ‘Liebestrod’ is probably the finest track here. A magical piece of music, at once hopeful and hopeless.

That dichotomy of undeniably beauty and yet crushing melancholy is a theme revisited on many occasions throughout the record. Masterfully done in the rending ‘Turn Us to Stone’, or the tragic ‘Bury Me in Your Heart’, this would be a heartbreakingly beautiful record even without the knowledge of events transpiring in the production of it. Add that in and Rise to the Sky have crafted one of the year’s most essential albums if you have a need for poignant misery. ‘Let Me Drown With You’ is powerful, moving and excellently written. Superb.

https://risetothesky.bandcamp.com/

https://gsproduction.bandcamp.com/album/let-me-drown-with-you