Oh No!! Mar de Grises, the Chilean Insomnium, Are Breaking Up
This is terrible news: Mar de Grises, the Chilean melancholic death/doom band we affectionately call “The Chilean Insomnium,” are packing it in after 13 years as a band. Heavy Blog picked up on a statement from the band (translated from Spanish) released via their label, Season of Mist:
It is with deep emotion that we must announce that Mar de Grises has come to an end. Several reasons have led us to make this decision. Our spirits have changed and we collectively chose to end this beautiful cycle. Our musical paths have parted. You will know about our new projects soon. Being part of this project during all these years has been amazing and magical, and sharing our feelings through music with great friends for so long has filled us with joy and satisfaction. Mar de Grises allowed us to reach places we never thought we would; to share stage with people we admire and, above all, with good friends; to contribute to the musical history of Chile, and to reach the hearts of fans all over the world. We feel more than rewarded with all your love and feedback. We would like to give our sincere thanks to all our technical staff, friends and families, past members of the band, labels, promoters, media, agencies, and to all those who believed and were sincerely involved in all our undertakings. Above all, we wish to thank all our fans who have given us unconditional support during these 13 years. To give this story the ending it deserves, we are working on the details of a final show which will be announced soon. Now the Jewel of the Andes, as we were once called, will rest in our hearts and will continue to live in you and your memories. Farewell.
There’s no other way to put it: this fucking sucks. Though the band’s been around for a while now I feel like I was only just getting to know them, and unfortunately they never made it to the U.S. to play any shows.
To simply call them “The Chilean Insomnium” would of course be selling them short; 2010’s Streams Inwards was a phenomenal album that placed in Axl’s favorites of that year. To quote Axl, its songs make us feel “so fucking depressed and yet so invigorated at the same time,” an odd contradiction that makes sense only in the context of this music. Mar de Grises took the Insomnium / Daylight Dies formula and gave it an even more depressing gravitas, further down the inward spiral.
Oh well. Another great band bites the dust. R.I.P.
