Rorcal are one. They answer as a single voice, unified in their philosophy and their visceral approach to music. It is a rich tapestry and history that spans over eleven releases and collaborations. Rorcal create bleak, authentic, unrepentant extreme art that defies simple conventions and definitions as their striking new release ‘’Silence’’ displays
‘’It’s kind of fun, because all our albums are quite different and each one displays a strong identity. They all have a unique feeling to them, but in the same time, they are all made with the almost the same ingredients. Our “evolution” mostly resides in what amount of these elements each album is made of… For example, there were already hints of black metal on HLGBLS, and there is indeed a lot of doom on Silence… So, yeah, Silence is an evolution, it’s clearly more extreme than everything that precede it, but in the same time it’s also pure Rorcal, like all that came before!
It is your heaviest darkest moment yet. Was it intentional to create such an uncompromising record?
‘’We always seek for darker, more violent, more disturbing music. It’s in our genes. We always begin be defining a theme, a concept, before starting to write. This time, it was pessimism regarded as a religion. Si it led to something quite dark, as you can easily imagine.
It is also haunting with a seductive edge as well. Kind of like looking into the abyss and being drawn to it?
‘’It’s true that it is quite easy to indulge oneself in the darkest realms. But to be honest, our music is mostly catharsis to us. By doing it, we are able to finally look at something else than the abyss. As a result, yes the music is dark, and uneasy, but it also displays a kind of beauty, and I think it’s easy to get drawn to it, to find this beauty in it, and to bath in blood like it was hot water.
What lead to its creation? Was it personal experience and the world around you? Has the norms of society lead to such nihilism?
‘’Yes. World is fucked, humanity stinks. It doesn’t take much effort to realize that humans are useless pricks which all deserve what is coming.
It is a concept on the themes of hopelessness and inevitability?
‘’Yes. The album tells the story of an individual, from birth to death. Finding that all is always going to happen the worst way it can, he decides to fully embrace the inevitable, becoming himself the instrument of sorrow. The idea is that hope is a biological feature that has no real meaning beside pushing people to stay alive the longest they can. Hope is a lie. When one realizes that, only silence remains. Our character on the album goes one step further as he wants to silence all hope in others, so the lie is finally destroyed for all mankind.
Is hope an illusion that leads to silence? It’s a statement of fact that also contains a touch of vulnerability?
‘’Yes. But I think that the point of our character is quite the opposite of vulnerable: when you abandon all hope, nothing can hurt you anymore. You already know that you’ll face the worst in everything, thus it erase all vulnerability.
What is extinguished Innocence?
‘’The moment when you lose all the illusion that childhood carries. And it can happen really soon when you’re faced with obstacle from an early age, which is the case for our pessimist character.
It has stronger Industrial undercurrent that leads to a new level of bleakness?
‘’Yes. The collaboration with Earthflesh (Witch Coven) was a more industrial release, and we really liked the way it sounded. So, having a lot of sample and having them stronger in the mix then became an evidence quite early in the process of writing Silence. The industrial sounds also mark the process of dehumanisation that our character experiment from an early age.
How do you create ‘’noise’’ to cast off your own personal silence?
‘’We all have different ways to cope with our inner silence. But to be honest, we mostly feed ourselves with art, all kind of it. We think that art could be the only justification to human existence. So, yeah, we erase our inner silence by consuming a shit load of music, films, books, paintings, shows…
Life is imminently short and ultimately fragile. Is there any chance of escaping the darkness?
‘’No. Doom is inevitable.
How do you describe darkness? Was it the shadow of light or did it cast the light out?
‘’Darkness is the primary engine. Darkness precede light, and thus creates it.
What drew you to extreme music ?
‘’We all felt for extreme music a long time ago… I mean, we just did. Explaining what people like in extreme metal/music is quite pointless, the fact that they do is all that matter. But I guess there’s a question about catharsis, maybe even exorcism : listening to something violent prevents from behaving in a violent way in every day’s life… I think that the very violent aspect of the Greek tragedies worked the same… Seeing people doing crazy, shitty, violent stuff show you that it’s not a good idea to actually perform them in real life.
‘’And, on a more grounded aspect, when you do understand extreme music, it does not sound violent anymore, there’s always beauty in it, subtle melodies, depth, a mastery in the performance… Honestly, what’s not to like?
Should music remain undefinable?
‘’We’re nothing more than the sum of our influences. Or maybe we do overcome them? I think that Rorcal begins to be quite definable, we’ve strong musical roots in different genres, but I think that the way we integrate them in our sound is quite unique. It’s something that comes over often in reviews: we sound like ourselves, Rorcal sounds like Rorcal, whatever the release, and it’s easy to identify our “style”. But at the same time, there is always something that is difficult to grasp when we talk about the musical art. Something quite evanescent and something ever-changing: listening to a certain album at a certain point in time could be a total different experience than listening to it at a different point in time… I think that the human body interact strongly (and strangely) to music, thus creating a polymorphic experience.
What is next for the project? How do you keep continually releasing music that is superior to its incredible predecessors?
‘’Next step is touring as much as we can! We’re very happy with this new release and playing it live is a fucking blast (even if it’s also a very demanding performance), so for now, no other plan than to share the blackness of our work with as much people as we can! And, regarding the second part of your question, well, first of all, thank you, second of all: we just put everything we have in the writing and performing of our music. We’re sincere, we push ourselves, we work hard. There’s no shortcut to the black arts, you have to commit fully.
Top 6 albums of all time?
Mayhem : The de Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
Morbid Angel : Domination
Judas Priest : Painkiller
Wolves in the Throne Room: Two Hunters
Immolation : Close to a World Below
Slayer : Season in the Abysse
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