The Formative Years – Rorschach
While it did not take long for me to take an interest in Rorschach after having been exposed to their debut album “Remain Sedate”, their split 7” with Neanderthal and their “Needlepack” 7”, it was the way they married Die Kreuzen-esque and Voivod-y dissonance, sinister sludge parts and metal slants with traditional hardcore elements on their “Protestant” LP that pushed the envelope significantly.
Charles Maggio’s high-pitched tortured borderline Black Metal vocals became an instrument in itself, sandwiched between sheer endless barrages of spastic rhythmic time changes, grinding passages, doomy elegies and razor sharp, mazey volatile riffing, resulting in one of the most aggressive, abrasive and explosive albums and thereby providing the foundation for a more angular minded kind of hardcore to blossom and bloom.
“Protestant” is dark matter pressed onto vinyl with the band furiously weaving an idiosyncratic multi-layered atonal tapestry of eccentric, schizoid anguish, which seems informed by the polyrhythms of jazz.
A cohesive, angry, unpredictable, wonderfully psychotic and brilliantly monolithic album that I will never tired of and one that has easily stood the test of time.
Mandatory listening for anyone remotely interested in what inspired bands like Converge.
