Rorcal – Mahre (Enlightenment Period Post-Black Metal Hardcore Sludge)
I actually had something else up for review today, but I deleted the entirety of it in spite of working on it for over an hour. A complete wipe, which is very fitting here for reasons I will soon explain. In the end, band remaining unnamed, it just didn’t have the depth I needed this week. In fact, I was kind of going with whatever I had left because the queue was horribly dry. Then, to my great happiness, I found that Switzerland’s Rorcal was dropping another full-length after three years, this week in fact, so I erased the review and started anew, because true poetry in post-black metal has never existed like this before. Haven’t heard of them?
They tend to keep to themselves and for their latest, Mahre, there isn’t even a single track sample other than Instagram reels, such as the one presented above. As if by fate I was in a similar situation when I reviewed their full-length Silence in 2023. A drought in the queue, turned into a saturated landscape by a single drop. The development of the band by 2026 is astounding itself, but the sound will erase not just the review previously on this page, but all of your preconceptions about metal, post-hardcore, black metal, the entirety. If their previous work was “18th century,” as I described it, we’ve officially entered “The Enlightenment” with Mahre. For this one, far more experimentation has taken the focus. Though you’ll still find post-hardcore and sludge action within the musical narratives, the band is now into the realm of mythopoeia. I know I said preconceptions are moot here, but it’s more than that. This is a total wipe of everything. You can only start anew, accept what they provide, and understand the future path. Genre-killing while simultaneously genre-creating. There will never be another band like this.
Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls
Rorcal – Mahre
Hummus Records
Cover Art: Caroline Vitelli
5 / 5
