ALBUM REVIEW: Witch Coven – Rorcal & Earthflesh

Collaborative albums in the underground are becoming something of a trend now. From last year’s excellent THOU & EMMA RUTH RUNDLE LP to BELL WITCH & AERIAL RUIN’s recent outing, the fusing of two artists’ oft disparate styles to create something new has taken on a life of its own during the pandemic. In keeping with this is the upcoming release from doomy black metal quintet RORCAL who have joined forces with EARTHFLESH, their original bassist, to bring forth the most violent, abrasive and horrifying noises of their career so far. 

The almost choral opening to Altars of Nothingness is reminiscent of a church service, though this is relatively short-lived. Just shy of the three minute mark the guitars enter, an abrasive sound that bludgeons into submission before unearthly shrieks make themselves known. Their placement lower in the mix ensures that rather than stealing focus away, they instead complement the battering already being dealt. This leads into droning, doomy moments of swirling feedback before the midpoint begins to push the song into more black metal territories.

Where the first song Altars of Nothingness is more droning doom, crawling and purposeful, Happiness Sucks, So Do You amps up the black metal and spews its hatred indiscriminately. The rasping vocals are much more prevalent as well as tremolo guitars that are dissonant without being completely atonal, building an inescapable cage of sound. The first few minutes, especially from just past the two minute mark to around five minutes, is furious in its bleakness with occasional lulls from the storm. Blastbeats are used liberally, accelerating it into a swirling, frosty maelstrom. 

It’s only two tracks long, but Witch Coven is thirty minutes of sheer aural dread. Each track sits around the fifteen minute mark and mutates from menacing ambience to claustrophobic terror and everything in between. There’s passages of crawling doom like the midpoint of Altars of Nothingness, sometimes featuring desperate howls low in the mix to create a bleak, oppressive atmosphere. They sit alongside droning ambience including the track’s opening as well as the midpoint of Happiness Sucks, So Do You. 

The use of repetition and drone, such as the midway in the aforementioned track, are less meditative and more foreboding. There’s a deep, abiding sense of unease in the looping feedback, pained shouts kept low in the mix and the deeply unsettling atmosphere. This persists for several minutes and rather than becoming tedious, only serves to accentuate the violence that bookends it. 

Speaking of violence, moments of furious raw black metal also seep through, with the majority of the second track Happiness Sucks… being made up of an abrasive wall of frost and misanthropy. It’s hard to tell exactly where RORCAL ends and EARTHFLESH begins; the two exist in an almost perfect symbiosis, complementing the other and adding depth and extra dimensions of extremity to the music. 

Witch Coven is deeply experimental in its approach; the repetitive passages, dissonance and sense of claustrophobia throughout mark it out to be something quite unique and certainly it won’t be for everyone. For those daring to brave the deeply unsettling depths, however, will certainly find a cathartic, if not enjoyable in the traditional sense, experience.

Rating: 8/10

Witch Coven is set for release April 2nd via Hummus Records.

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