Rorcal – Silence (Review)

Rorcal are a Swiss post-black/doom metal band and this is their sixth album.

Rorcal have shown what they’re capable of very ably on previous releases such as their 2014 split with Process of Guilt, 2016’s κρέων (Creon), 2019’s Muladona, and  2021’s collaboration with Earthflesh, so I was eager to experience the punishment Silence inevitably held in store for me, whatever form it took. On this release we get 42 minutes of new material, and it is not to be approached by the unwary.

The Rorcal sound is a hybrid one, taking from a range of styles to provide something of their own. Doom, sludge, hardcore, post-metal, drone, and industrial elements are all subsumed into a hideous blackened mass that’s then shaped by the band into the terrifying structures that you’ll find on their work. You never quite know what each individual release might manifest these ingredients as; on Silence it’s one of chaos and a deep pervading darkness. As a very rough starting point, think of an unholy mix of bands such as Anaal Nathrakh, Celeste, Plebeian Grandstand, Amenra, Hexis, This Gift Is a Curse, and Cult of Luna.

Silence is the sound of the apocalypse given barbed sonic form. Rorcal have always thrived in the underground, breeding scathing nightmares from creative fervour, and these new tracks find their music condensed into tight, raging expressions of horror and menace. Combining malignant atmosphere, grim esoteric heaviness, and a loathing for the light that’s almost tangible, Silence is aggressively potent.

Silence offers the listener a churning maelstrom of blistering black metal intensity, hateful sludge groove, jagged dissonant riffs, monolithic doom darkness, ugly hardcore brutality, and sinister atmospheric depth. Rorcal go about their work with abyssal malevolence, channelling the worst of the universe into songs that want to murder the world. As you would expect from something described like that, this is colossally heavy, and not the sort of thing that the uninitiated are likely to easily take too. Despite that, it’s certainly far from an impenetrable mess; within Rorcal’s scathing bleak aggression lies songcraft worthy of repeat visits. All hope may be lost, but Silence will make sure that the end times are accompanied by a fitting soundtrack.

A record of scornful oppressive atmosphere and witheringly brutal violence, Silence is an abrasive work with an impressive presence. Rorcal have produced yet another stellar example of their mutagenic style, one which slots into their enviable discography like a rusted knife into decaying flesh.