AllMusic Review by Peter J. D'Angelo
The debut 12-song LP from New Jersey's Rorschach is a
pummeling assault that has the ability to leave listeners feeling
nearly brutalized after just a few minutes of listening. Chugging
guitars straddle the line of metal and hardcore as they grind underneath
each track on the record and the expected sinister basslines and
crushing drums push things toward an angry resolution. Occasionally, the
band ups the ante and bursts into rapid speed metal segues but, even on
the slower numbers, Rorschach is a truly torrential-sounding musical
force. The group's real muscle is the monstrously evil-sounding screams
of singer Charles Maggio. Maggio sounds as if he is shredding his vocal
chords on nearly every track, and his explosive screamed rants on
genocide, oppression, insecurity, and all of the other staple hardcore
topics are frightfully convincing. Granted, this is pretty much a
one-trick pony and, if thunderous hardcore tracks are not your thing,
then there isn't really that much to get out of Rorschach. On the other
hand, if you consider yourself an aficionado of the genre, then this is
well worth hearing. Remain Sedate is unrelenting from start to finish
and, for a record made during what are slowly becoming the early days of
hardcore, it really is an amazingly heavy creation.
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