3rd November 2022

Exclusive Interview: Gorotica talk “Morbid Menagerie”!

The dawn of a new age of the grotesque is upon us as Jon Von Cannibale’s Gorotica ride like the three horsemen of the apocalypse to bring plague and pestilence to this land from the backwoods of Sydney. Their stock in trade is Cannibalistic Deathgrind but there are more twists in the tale of their debut album “Morbid Menagerie” than a film inked in blood by John Carpenter so expect moments of American Groove Metal and Swedish Death Metal nuanced into the songs as well as a couple of choice guest appearances. So without further ado, here’s the first of a creature double feature of interviews with the man himself…

How have you found the reaction to the band’s material amongst those that have heard it so far? “First off, thanks for the interview! So far it’s been nothing but positive feedback from the fans on social media and the reviews as well”

Having 22 tracks in 39 minutes makes the record a real blast, but the variety is astounding. Did you think that people would be turned off by the number of tracks at any point? “Thanks and glad you’ve enjoyed the songs! Not sure about the other guys but that was a concern I had when the track list was finished and I was going over it, especially seeing it written out on the computer screen really hit home how many tracks we had, but in the end there wasn’t anything we wanted to cut. Seeing as most of them sit around the 1-2 minute mark made it easier to keep them all, I think”

Lyrically the album is full of tongue in cheek humour; from what vein do you draw inspiration for that? Do you have any recommended viewings or readings in the Horror or Exploitation genres we should sink our teeth into? “I think that just comes from my own sense of dark humour, I love the absurd lyrics that will make you laugh or get some type of reaction, but also the violence in films that is so over the top that it transcends to comedy, films by Tarantino and also Simon Pegg’s trilogy of horror comedies are an example. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis is another great example and honestly a must read I think for horror/comedy fans. Lyrically we stay the course pretty strong with the cannibalism theme, so from that I can mention stuff like Cannibal Holocaust and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but there are also real life incidents of cannibalism from the middle ages I had read about, and we also have the medieval torture setting in quite a few of the songs that explore this too, so this is something I’d like to embrace even further in future music”

There are a few nods to the Swedish Death Metal scene in the riffs and tremolo-picked leads but there is way more to your sound than meets the eye. We’ve picked out some moments of Groove Metal and Progressive Technical Death Metal as curve balls; who would you say were your biggest influences musically? “We listen quite extensively to a lot of music, so apart from the Swedish influence I would also say Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Hatebreed, Dying Fetus, Benighted, Napalm Death, Pig Destroyer, Anaal Nathrakh, Cryptopsy and Pathology are among the favourites that influenced the song writing”

The thing that surprised us most about “Morbid Menagerie” is that there is a real sense of fun to it; was that a natural thing or did you have to work to bring that element to the table? “That is a very natural thing that just came out in the writing I think, we never sat down and planned out rules for a final product or anything of that sort. I guess it goes back to the subtle dark humour in the record so having these fast, fun songs ended up reflecting that tone”

What’s next for Gorotica? “I have in mind something for a future record actually! As I mentioned earlier I would like to have a more medieval theme prominent with the grindcore, which is something I haven’t really seen in the genre, and of course keeping the fun and humour element to everything. So hopefully we can begin work soon on some new songs for you all”

You can find “Morbid Menagerie” by Gorotica over at bandcamp.