RORCAL — Heliogabalus (review)

RORCAL — Heliogabalus album cover Album · 2010 · Drone Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
renkls
A sonic dirge of mammoth proportions.

Doom metal is part of my staple diets these days, and being attracted to a genre that is renowned for some of the most aggressive, powerful and visceral music around, it's good to see my expectations fulfilled with Rorcal's Heliogabalus; a concept album of one 70 minute track, chronicling the infamous emperors four year reign of excess.

Opening deceptively soft with a minute of ticking on the edge of a drum cymbal, out of nowhere a massive riff hurtles us into the opening passage, and indicates the nature of the journey you're about to go on. A minute later, the first vocals appear, best described as protracted gurgling screams and rasping howls of anger. Get used to them, they're the dominant vocal style throughout the composition. They fit the concept well and for someone who is not accustomed to doom, they're quite shocking.

About the lyrics; they're incomprehensible due to the vocal treatment - but in the context of the album, it seems fitting. The band has made the statement in an interview that it is more about the feeling then the words themselves, and fitting to that idea, Heliogabalus is one angry, cathartic beast.

It's not seventy straight minutes of a dirge, ala Corrupted (Paso Inferior), but it takes dips and turns throughout, most prominently a five minute drum and keyboard interlude and 10 minute piano and organ segue in the center of the piece. However, it's never less then dynamic enough to maintain your full interest. While the opening eight minutes may seem at first to be a repeating riff, there is enough experimentation and slight alterations to the riff to give a full bodied covering to the track. This is greatly assisted by the fact the band played all the instruments live.

The album shows some influence from post-metal bands like Dirge and nails exactly what I think modern doom should shoot for, bleak, angry and powerful - but never less then fully engaging. For a seventy minute track to keep your full attention all the way through is a massive achievement, and in doom, certainly an even greater challenge in the nature of the music it presents.

Rorcal has pulled this release off incredibly, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to any and all doom fans - and seeing as it's free for download (!), I advise you go over to their website and check this monolith of sludgy doom out.
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