Sotabosc (es)

Sotabosc are the latest embodiment of Xavi Forne’s boundless talent and creativity. On his newest project, the man behind the iconic dunk!festival posters and live album artworks is channeling all his pent-up rage and frustration, summoning ghosts from Spain’s turbulent past in a visceral post-black metal seance. Meaning 'undergrowth' in Catalan, the band pays tribute to the Maquis, the anti-Francoist guerrilla fighters of Catalonia during Franco’s fascist regime; an undergrowth of freedom springing from under the dark shade of totalitarianism.

On this project, Xavi has hired long-time friends and collaborators Òscar Linares and Manel of Syberia fame, in a sonic onslaught that promises to take no prisoners. Singing entirely in Catalan and rooted in this anti-fascist ethos, the Sotabosc blend atmospheric black metal intensity with post-rock relaxed tempos, converging in unconventional dynamics and lush ambient textures lending themselves to themes of nature and mythology, memory, loss, and resistance.

Sotabosc’s debut album “El Batec dels Maquis” came out last month, and we can’t wait to witness all its raw magnetism immerse in a forest ourselves. Split across two halves the album moves from blast beats to acoustic passages effortlessly, culminating in a 15-minute black-metal monolith of extraordinary emotional power. Raw, defiant, and deeply rooted in metal tradition, Sotabosc are a political and sonic statement landing in Zottegem at exactly the right moment.

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