It's been four long years since we've heard from Foscor. The Catalonians released their last album in the fall of 2019. Despite rave reviews, including a 5-star review from Metal Hammer, touring was cut short before the band could even step foot on the open road after COVID-19 shuttered the world into lockdown.
But Foscor have never stopped growing. While their name still means "darkness", the band have shifted out from the shroud of second wave black metal that ushered in their first two albums. Today, they're returning with "Solitud", an unreleased song that drifts deeper into clean vocals and heavy melancholic riffs.
Listen to "Solitud" below
"Solitud" was originally recorded during the sessions for Els Sepulcres Blancs, but the song encapsulates the prevailing loneliness of the pandemic. The chorus crushes you softly with its distorted melody and bottomless bass drones.
"The song itself offers a vital closure", says Foscor. Still, "Solitud" ends on a hopeful note. Gliding above an acrobatic guitar solo, the vocals - sung in the band's native tongue - are clean and light as a feather.
"This song is a proper way to close that album cycle before definitely facing and closing the trilogy initiated in 2017 with Les Irreals Visions. It reminds us the spark to enlighten the future...the one that we have never walked alone. A brand new chant from the past, looking toward a final chapter, surrounded by tragic darkness.
Order Foscor albums and merch: https://shopusa.season-of-mist.com/band/foscor
The Catalans return with the second chapter of the trilogy initiated with “Les Irreals Visions” in 2017, yet strongly connected to the fin de siècle cultural movement of Modernisme - a parallel development to Art Nouveau and Jugendstil among others. Visual things must acquire a new secret appearance, and with ‘Els Sepulcres Blancs’ FOSCOR treats poetically how facing a change of a sick world and society through the land of dreams.
The title translates as “The White Tombs”, a metaphor for that world of dreams and expectations where humans chained to reality may die and born free to imagine a better one.
Foscor hail from Catalonia, and take inspiration from the morbid, decadent, and sick reflections on a rapidly changing society, as the artistic landscape at the end of the nineteenth century shaped.
The name Foscor translates as "darkness" in their native Catalan tongue, which the band from Barcelona uses for their lyrics as a distinctive element and strong connection with their cultural reality.
The Catalans’ first two albums, 'Entrance to the Shadows' Village' (2004), 'The Smile of the Sad Ones' (2007) wrapped a shroud of classic second wave black metal around a melancholic yet vital core. 'Groans to the Guilty' (2009) witnessed Foscor setting out towards more progressive and avant-garde course, but it was next full-length 'Those Horrors Wither' (2014) which marked a clear departure from the black metal. Darkness found an equally strong expression through the use of very personal clean vocals, tempo reduction and atmosphere.
In 2017, Foscor took another step in their constantly changing and shifting evolution. The brand new release 'Les Irreals Visions' (2017) was easily drawing its eager audience in, only to lure the unwary listener into a dark labyrinth of unexpected complexity filled with beauty and sorrow. In 2018, Foscor explored these lines between reality, poetry and the beyond even further with a special digital release transforming their own music into a so intimate experience; 'Les Irreals Versions' (2018).
Now, 2019 promises to be as tragic as their music claims with the so sensitive release of 'Els Sepulcres Blancs', its characteristic melancholic sonic aura and catchy riffing intensity. Their most personal and delicate sound achievement to date.
Style: Dark Atmospheric Metal
Line-up
Fiar: lyrics, vocals
Falke: guitars, effects
Albert M.: guitars, bass, piano
Jordi F.: drums
Esteban P.: keys
Shop: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/Foscor
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