Review by Vinny for Rorschach - Remain Sedate (1990)

It has gotten to the point now where it is laughable for me to have thought at one point that metalcore was not for me. It took me such a ridiculous amount of time to understand its quite simple roots, with those origins far from being alien to me. In some of its later formats, modern metalcore does get lost on me, with Rorschach’s debut however, this bemusement is not present. Whilst they appear to have only been a short-lived outfit, the New Jersey quintet made their presence felt on Remain Sedate. Their anti-authority messaging is delivered in a frenzied manner across the twelve tracks here and whilst I do find the sound to be a little thin, which possibly gives them extra points on the underground sound in some opinions, there is no denying their intentions here.

I do not find that Remain Sedate plays too well as background music; it is over far too quickly to be fully appreciated in such circumstances. On the version I have on Spotify, the album is combined with their final full-length release, Protestant and the variation is interesting to hear as the band move into a more screamed vocal style that embraces more sub-genres than the debut does. Remain Sedate though is the darker child of the two that the band birthed. Protestant certainly upped the ante with the grindcore elements and overall heaviness, but in terms of if one album is better than the other, I would argue that they are two different albums from two different points in time.

Whilst it may not start off the best (the opening to Pavlov’s Dogs does annoy me) the album soon settles into a consistent rhythm of a series of short, sharp shocks that jolt the listener along the way. Cleverly though, Rorschach do leave some spaces for breath and atmosphere such as the more “sedate” No one Dies Alone. Whilst this is an obvious change of pace the track lacks none of the grit that is so prevalent across the record. It is clear to see that Rorschach had hit their stride early on in their career and had some great ideas and control around them also. I would hazard a guess based on the second album that they probably went when they were supposed to.