Artist: Rosacroce
Title: Acqua Tofana
Type: EP
Label: Digital / Matriarch Records
One of the things I admire about Matriarch Records, besides their ethos, is their willingness to look a little farther afield and peeking a little over the side of the box too. Which brings us to this debut EP from Italian gothic black metal duo Rosacroce.
I wasn’t sure what to expect but ‘Antimonos’ opens up with a strange, unearthly organ sound. A little edge to the notes which sound as though age has affected the tuning, a buzz of interference, but softly. And a rising presence which is quite beautifully picked up by the title track, which apparently is a Sicilian arsenic based poison. The melody is delicate and gothic until the black metal riff arrives. And yet behind this quite raw sound, there is the hint of ethereal vocals. Their tune runs almost counter to the snarls, the riff, a wandering ghost in the background perhaps. It has a curious, almost innocent or pure quality and feels as though the person is lost in their own bewildered mind. Wandering through the hallways of this song it is unsettling. This is amplified by the swerves of tempo and sound. If you want touchstones I have to go way back into history and think of the strangeness of early Angizia and perhaps a less insane Ebony Lake. It is doscordance, abrupt, curious and weirdly enthralling for the adventurous.
‘Sulpher Mercury’ is even more bizarre. There is a sound, I assume guitar, which sounds like a small laugh. The female voice is almost disconnected but still swirls around the guitar work. This has turns of a very goth sound amidst the riffing, but the reality is the way it raises the eerie unhinged vocals despite their ethereal nature.
‘Notturno’ has a fantastic gothic black metal opening, a fine raw riff and vocals, a descent into some dark place on the tide of synth waves. And then the haunted one returns, calling you further downwards, almost nursery rhyme like in its deranged but sweet sound. The slow, almost ponderous moments and the faster tempos collide and mix but the clean voice has its own world and its own path and the effect is eerie.
‘(((+)))’ is a slow, smooth whisper and murmur on gentle notes with the harsh vocals echoing in the distance as the synth sounds and ghost vocals waltz gracefully around. It’s almost a shift in perspective to those clean vocals, their world where the black metal is the feral background they ignore.
‘Gorgones’ has a harpsicord introduction, wavering insane vocals and a sudden wall of noise, chopped into sections like nterference in the signal. Wihen that falls silent the step of the song is light, when it is present it is harsh, dramatic, disruptive. But to whom? I don’t know. The singer dances and drifts in the distance, down the hallways and the chaos seems to trail them.
We close with ‘Chaos’ as though what has gone before is all quite, quite normal. Juddering, sputtering almost trip-hop sounds in a playground for the insane. Techo pulsing, doomy goth keyboards. Arcturus less baroque and more primitive. Structure be damned, leave them wanting more and if you can’t do that leave them utterly bewildered…?
I think its fair to say that this EP will not be for everyone but that I am rather smitten with it. It is strange and twisted and its avant-garde sensibilities wander in and out of gothic hallways and haunted nurseries with a whisper of silk and a clatter and scrape of darker intent. As a first EP this is fascinating to me and compelling listening too. The fact that I have simply no idea where they might take this sound makes it all the more strange. Yes its a little insane but, there again, aren’t all the best things?
Step outside your little box and see if Rosacroce can lead you down some unexplored and twisted passages. Just beware that ghostly, inviting voice…
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 