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Rorcal - Muladona review




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Reviewer:
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10 users:
7.8
Band: Rorcal
Album: Muladona
Release date: November 2019


01. This Is How I Came To Associate Drowning With Tenderness
02. She Drained You Of Your Innocence And You Poisoned Her With It
03. I'd Done My Duty To My Mother And Father. And More Than That I'd Found Love
04. A Sea Of False Smiles Hiding Murder Jealousy And Revenge
05. Carnation Were Not The Smell Of Death. They Were The Smell Of Desire
06. The Only Constant In This World Is Blackness Of The Human Heart
07. I Was The Muladona's Seventh Tale

Can I get away with sliding one last 2019 review onto the home page before focusing on 2020 albums? Yes, I think I just might have to.

My eye had been on Rorcal for a while before the writing of this review. The cover of this album, Muladona, with its mysterious, tattoo-looking horse, was oddly alluring, and made me pretty curious about what sounds could lie within. But the announcement that the band would be playing at this year's esteemed Roadburn Festival was the catalyst that made me finally pull the trigger on listening. I'm damn glad I did. Muladona features some of the outright nastiest jamz I've heard in a minute, a filthy, hard hitting blend of black metal, sludge, and industrial. While the opening track is more of a droning, hypnotizing ambient number (set over a long audio sample, bonus points to whoever can tell me where it comes from), it's a bit deceptive as to what the rest of the package entails. From there, a plodding sound somewhat akin to a slower Dragged Into Sunlight dominates: a sludgey foundation embellished by black metal riffing, dark electronic ambiance, and piercing shrieks.

Muladona alternates between its three primary ingredients (sludge, black, and industrial) fairly well, for quite a pleasing, diverse listening experience. One second the tempo may be considerably restrained, with the band content to hammer along with a more crushing, doomier approach, and the next it may increase significantly into more furious blast beats and black metal riffage, as towards the end of "She Drained You Of Your Innocence." At other points the opposite may happen, where initial bursts of violence may eventually be toned down a notch into downtempo sequences of more lulling sludge and industrial wanderings. As Muladona clearly demonstrates, Rorcal are a band thankfully not content to sit too idly on any one approach for too long, and the variation in their delivery makes for quite an enjoyable listen. The only real fault I can find with Muladona is that the bass isn't quite as audible in the mix as I would've liked, but overall this is a pretty minor complaint.

Muladona is my first time crossing paths with Rorcal, but it's certainly left a powerful impression, and will quite likely lead to me investigating their four prior albums as well. Tightly composed, well paced, and heavy in every sense of the word, I may have come about 4 months late to the Muladona party, but I'm happy I came regardless. Don't let this one fall into obscurity, as these guys definitely deserve more attention.

Begin the assault.






Written on 09.02.2020 by Metal Storm’s own Babalao. Comforting the disturbed and disturbing the comfortable since 2013.


Comments

Comments: 5   Visited by: 75 users
09.02.2020 - 21:58
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
Man they surely love long titles
----
Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
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09.02.2020 - 22:51
Auntie Sahar
Drone Empress
Written by RaduP on 09.02.2020 at 21:58

Man they surely love long titles

With bands that do this kinda shit I always wonder if they say the full title out loud when they're performing live. I think you'd be kind of obligated to
----
I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go.

~ II. VII
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09.02.2020 - 22:55
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
Written by Auntie Sahar on 09.02.2020 at 22:51

Written by RaduP on 09.02.2020 at 21:58

Man they surely love long titles

With bands that do this kinda shit I always wonder if they say the full title out loud when they're performing live. I think you'd be kind of obligated to

I'll make sure to tell you if that's the case.
----
Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
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10.02.2020 - 15:47
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
What a song titles
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Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
[image]
I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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15.02.2020 - 18:27
tea[m]ster
Au Pays Natal
I have been waiting for something as good as VILAGVEGE. I hope this is it. Excellent review and thanks.
----
rekt
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