Rorcal – Silence
Rorcal – Silence
Hummus Records
Release Date: 29/09/23
Running Time: 40:21
Review by Dark Juan
8/10
Dark Juan is my name, and I do things that ordinary folk don’t. Wrangling recalcitrant young kids? Over it like a cheap suit, mate. Writing artfully constructed record reviews for people I have never met and am never likely to? That’s what I spend a lot of my spare time doing for your pleasure out there, dear readers. Being a psychopomp and a psychopath at the same time? Kills two birds with one stone, that does. Imagination and sense of humour sicker than the idea of an abattoir for humans? Well, obviously, because the image of said abattoir popped unbidden into my head in rather grisly detail. Imagine the noise and the smell and all those limbs vacuum-packed for sale so they can be crammed down the gullets of people who manage to ignore what meat actually is. Bet they wouldn’t be so keen if there was a human foot attached to the end of that lovely roasting leg joint.
This is why Dark Juan should never be left to sober up. Alcohol is a safety net protecting the rest of humanity at large from me. If I am sober, then I start to go down warrens of thought, and down there the demons dwell. We don’t want to release Dark Juan’s demons. That would be unfortunate. Not for me, you understand, but for the world at large when it is left only with shattered and blasted cities, populaces running screaming for cover because Dark Juan has lost his temper and has gone on the rampage. You should all thank whichever deity you prefer that Dark Juan has hobbies. They prevent the apocalypse.
A possible soundtrack to a Dark Juan- facilitated end of the world is Swiss Black Metal/ Drone/ Doom band Rorcal. I’m sure you’ll agree that those styles make for an eclectic mix, to be sure, but I am here to assure you that the whole kit and caboodle works – opening track ‘Early Mourning’ is as speedy and savage a BM track as you are ever likely to hear, and this contrasts gorgeously with the Droning horror of the first four minutes of ‘Extinguished Innocence’ although the band leans a lot more on the side of Black Metal speediness and savagery than the geological heaviness of Doom or Drone. This is not necessarily a bad thing, though, because Dark Juan is a rabid and enthusiastic fan of Black Metal as long as it isn’t being played by a bunch of pasty-faced white supremacist shitbiscuits with arms and legs like pipecleaners. Have you ever noticed that generally white supremacists take one of two forms? They are either tiny and scrawny and look like they have been at the White Lightning cider since half-eight that morning, or they are bald, grossly fat, and covered in shit tattoos that say things like “Pussy Hunter” on their gross bellies and look like they have ten or twelve blood clots getting ready to bring their hatred to an abrupt and premature end?
‘Constant Void’ is rather slower and more Grindy than the previous few songs on the album and also brings in a neat Industrial touch to the proceedings on the second half of the song, with guitar upon guitar overlapping each other for an absolute wall of noise, a massive sound, played at a tempo that is slower than Dark Juan’s blood supply after a night of debauchery and absinthe. A central riff repeats itself, machine-like and regular, after a start that is speedy, with a bizarre kind of calliope-like carnival madness that is dissonant and ultra-harsh. It sounds like an even more extreme version of ‘Godtech’ era Red Harvest crossed with the mogadon slow Sludgegrind of Crowbar. This is an epic song and the clear highlight of the album so far.
‘Under The Nails’ returns us to atavistic Black Metal savagery, all speed and lightning swordplay, although with more than a casual nod to the Symphonic Black Metal stylings of one Emperor, but this time having a proper production job and not one done remotely on children’s battery powered microphones by a YTS trainee who is just moving knobs about on the 4-track Bontempi mixing desk he has been given. Black Metal sounds so much better when it doesn’t sound like a bunch of furious wasps in a submerged jam jar. ‘No Alleviation, Even In Death’ is rather more Industrial Noise in nature though, screaming, whispering, banging and clanking combining over a barely heard synth until the guitar and drums kick in, and then it’s Black Metal Meshuggah, all fractured polyrhythms and dissonance. It is a damned fine track though and an excellent album closer.
In short then – Listened to in sequence, this record shows a band that grows throughout the album. They start off with a pure Black Metal aesthetic and then this slowly develops through the record until Rorcal shows that they are easily and capably able to break through the strictures of BM and into even more extreme musical soundscapes which only have Black Metal as an adjunct to their icy cold malevolence.
Dark Juan feels that malevolent is the perfect way to describe Rorcal’s music. It’s hard to believe this band come from the land of Lindt chocolate and cuckoo clocks when there are bands from Belo Horizonte who are less brutal than these Swiss bruisers.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System awards Rorcal 8/10 for an excellent record that does suffer sometimes from personality crises, where songs can become confused and overly complex, but is still an enjoyable listen, and the song ‘Constant Void’ is an absolute instant classic. Well worth a punt, if you are being adventurous!
TRACKLISTING:
01. Early Mourning
02. Childhood Is A Knife In the Throat
03. The Worst In Everything
04. Extinguished Innocence
05. Hope Is A Cancer
06. Constant Void
07. Under The Nails
08. No Alleviation, Even In Death
LINE-UP:
Yonni Chapatte – Vocals
Diogo Almeida – Guitars
Jean-Philippe Schopfer – Guitars and Samples
Jeremy Spagnolo – Bass
Ron Lahyani – Drums and Samples
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.