Rigor Sardonicous - Vallis Ex Umbra De Mortuus Review
by Mark Hensch
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There exists a tendency in the genre of funeral doom to ignore the art of song writing. At times it has hovered dangerously close to a musical pissing contest---bands seemingly ply new lows of heaviness again and again, never really paying attention to how memorable their songs actually are.
No more. On their fourth full-length album, Vallis Ex Umbra De Mortuus, Long Island's Rigor Sardonicous craft an exquisitely gloomy album both frightening and memorable. Though the somber finality of death chokes listeners with a crushing atmosphere of oppression at every turn, Vallis constantly retains a sense of legitimate love for craft. The songs---though undeniably some of the most brutal, low, and heavy-as-holocaust music in all of 2008---are competent, well written, and (thankfully) engaging. This makes for a powerful listening experience, and probably one of the best American funeral doom albums this side of Evoken.
A unique intro track like "Mane de Maeroris," for example, showcases just how interesting Rigor Sardonicous strives to make their music. A lonely flute shuffles mournfully through a quietly slow tambourine rhythm, creating a disturbingly bleak hymn. Chilling in its simplicity, "Mane" right away illuminates a band that does not necessarily need extreme distortion to blanket listeners with darkness.
When said darkness actually falls, however, the result is striking. "Silens Somnium" creeps into ears with its soft, ghostly guitar notes, all before plummeting towards listeners with unimaginable heaviness. So furiously mammoth is this song, in fact, that I now regularly play it for people just to see their reactions. One thing is for certain---the downtrodden hopelessness on offer here surely makes an impression.
"Incompertus quod Anon" is nothing but dirge riffs and slamming tomb door percussion, a funerary procession straight into the bowels of Hell. Ponderous and gargantuan, the song stumbles like an army of the undead while pulverizing like a steamroller.
"Laudare Apocalypsis" sounds like the very end of the world, its dirge march percussion a horrible series of pounding portends of destruction and ruin to come. Through it all emerges malevolent levels of low-end sonic torture and a knack for clever songwriting. Initially turning listeners into jelly with some of the heaviest sounds outside of artillery fire, the band smartly removes all distortion save for a subterranean bass line behind frontman Joseph J. Forgarazzo's belch-from-the-pit bellows. It sounds like one's heart stopping, and it is damn dramatic. The rest of the song is no less brutal, with the band emitting mournful blasts of crypt slaughter worthy of Skepticism or Thergothon.
"Alveus de Somnus" twists and churns like dirt thrown by gravediggers shoveling over a freshly murdered victim they wish to hide. The effect of playing music as low, deep, and thick as Rigor Sardonicous' at a mid-paced level of speed is startling---the whole thing truly sounds like a steady hail of iron deadweights falling from the sky on one's head.
"Prophecies I---Preapocalyptica" rocks with oldschool heavy metal flair slowed down to a snail's laborious crawl. Gong-like percussion snaps necks while a steady pulse of lazy, elephantine distortion washes over the listener with an all-consuming ruin. Let me just say it feels frighteningly fast, but destroys frighteningly slow.
I will dare call "Agony" the "Reign of Blood" for funeral doom---the war-like drum definitely recalls that song while still being more doom and gloom. Dense whispers mix with entombed howls, creating a feeling of entropy and decay. Like a still-living man mistakenly buried, the song soon claws frantically with a mid-paced maelstrom of percussion that sound so fast in comparison it is like the heaviest thrash metal in the world. The speed, though, is all for naught, and the song is soon shut in its familiar casket of funeral doom once again.
The album ends after this with "Rex Regis Fortuna," a song chock full of skin-crawling riffs and dank auras. Riffs hang like fetid air over recently unearthed graves, and amidst it all, the band cast some of their deepest, darkest doom yet.
As an album, Vallis Ex Umbra Mortuus slays. The band's duo of guitars and bass is some of the most gripping, crushing music I have heard this year, and there is no doubt in my mind that Forgarazzo's sickening growls will go down as the most inhuman sounds emitted in 2008. Though featuring no percussion outside of a drum machine, the band hides it well, and the percussion on Vallis is appropriately funerary while retaining a militancy and viciousness often lacking in the genre. Cap it off with some clever, memorable sections and this is one of the most solid American funeral doom albums in years. Definitely pick this up if you are a fanatic of the genre, or for those looking for a sound introduction to funeral doom, check out this gristmill of sound.
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Rigor Sardonicous - Vallis Ex Umbra De Mortuus
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