Rorcal’s Zombie PCP Rage In A Blizzard, Világvége

The problem with post-metal (and a lot of genres) is stagnancy. And like any genre with the “post-” prefix, its practitioners tend to heap all effort on that “post” instead of the suffix. Some push so hard to be post-something that it’s almost impossible to tell where they started.

But Rorcal have not forgotten the metal. At its core their sound is post-metal, but it’s heavily coated with layers of blackened sludge. Világvége, their third album, is at times almost quasi-melodic in a somber way, but spends most of its forty-three minutes gnashing its teeth and thrashing about in the musical equivalent of a zombie’s PCP rage — in a blizzard. Unafraid both in utilizing a typical plodding tortoise-tempo and in unabashedly violent riffing,Világvége molds the best aspects of each metal genre into a delightfully cohesive and generally irate record, a snowstorm of boulders and hatred.

“Világvége” is the Swiss world for the apocalypse (similar to Ragnarök) and if you go by the old Frost poem, Világvége wholly supports the icy doom of the world. Despite the riffs that crash like an avalanche caused by lightning strike, there’s a razor edge to Világvége: in the cold splash of the cymbal, in the constant snowy buzz, and in Yonni Chapatte’s vocals, raspy wraith-screams from his frost-covered throat.

Its not a straight stumbling dirge, either: After the sodden sludge of its first two tracks, Világvége takes up a black metal tempo, becoming a thick whirlwind that could fling mountain villages about, without losing a shade of their heavy murk. “VII” is the most varying track; it’s swarmed by blast beats then taken over by a swelling, almost post-rock melody only to be crushed by riffs that abruptly blossom into a funereal church choir.

Világvége is what post-metal should sound like, all at once melodic, massive, and morose, its varying tempos and styles all combined with a collective desire to smash everything and bury it in the ashen snow.

–Ryan Marks

Listen to (and download) all of Rorcal’s Világvége here!