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Diabolical Conquest (Kunal N. Choksi): Hello Joseph. My body's dead cells haven't even been fully regenerated after they were recently exposed to ‘Vallis Ex Umbra De Rigor Sardonicus (Joseph): Hello and thank you for this interview. Our recent output of albums have been in line with our goals. Two of the five releases were re-records of older, self-released cd's, though 1 of them did include extra material. We feel it is just a focus that we choose to advance and as long as we feel it is worthy we will continue to release music on a regular basis.
DC: Are you concerned about the progression or rather the lack of it when writing music so quickly? The only Rigor material I've heard besides ‘Vallis..' is ‘Principia ardonica', and in comparison to it the songs on your new one seem to be much more varied whereas earlier they pretty much sounded like one long song. Is this change valid, or more importantly deliberate? I find it interesting that despite having the pace of funeral doom, your songs are generally not half as long. Why is that? Health reasons perhaps? RS: We do not anticipate any drastic changes to our music. We know what we seek to do and we feel that our boundaries are in place. This makes it easier for us to work rather than attempting to sound different with each succeeding release. 'Principia' has a ballad track on it as well as our longest song, which is "Possession". Long songs solely for the sake of being long is a distraction. Just because a cd is able to retain longer amounts of information does not mean that every cd should fill itself up simply because it can. We prefer our tracks to standard somewhat standard in length.
RS: This world provides enough inspiration precisely because it has degenerated so much. We find much of our motivation due to the fact that so few bands in this world sound akin to what we do. We write what we enjoy hearing.
DC: From your pictures it seems that you use a great deal of smoke for your live shows. Why would you do that? Is it because you guys are too ugly and wish to hide under the smoke subterfuge? Or is it just to elicit some action from the deadened audience like coughing violently, getting out of the venue, etc.? When under the full cover of smoke, have you ever been tempted to get the DJ to play songs from your album while you go backstage and have a couple of beers before you resume your playing positions? Have you gotten into any kind of trouble because of the smoke? RS: We like the effects of the smoke. We like the idea of there being a show rather than just watching people stand there and play. Our music is not the type that would elicit large movement. We like to have the lights dim and come from behind us rather than in front because it gives a more chilling effect. Yes, we have gotten into trouble several times due to amounts of smoke that we prefer. We have had the fire department called on more than one occasion. We like to have our beer close by at all times.
DC: There is a rebuttal posted on your site for all those who bemoan the vocal style of Rigor Sardonicous. As I've stated in my review of your band, I relish your slow guttural style of vocals; it adorns the music just as a maggot would adorn a rotting corpse. Then what do people find objectionable? Do they want you to croon and cry and shower flower petals on them instead? RS: What you said is appropriate. We do not enjoy whining style vocals, leave that to the emo scene. Our vocal style is proper to what we do since we seek to create a horrific atmosphere and not one of lonely crying in a corner. We had received many comments from people about the vocal style and we put the rebuttal up because we were tired of answering the same questions and rants since people could not accept that we define our own sound by what we do rather than popular 'opinion'.
DC: Even though the lyrics are in English, your song titles seem to be in another language, Latin I think. Why is that? Don't you think it makes it that much more difficult for the listener to distinguish between Rigor songs? Oh and do feel free to bless us with some insight behind those well written lyrics of yours. Also, is there a concept behind the album artwork of ‘Vallis..' where amidst the graves a skeleton is playing a flute and tambourine (for the opening song)? RS: Latin is considered the dead language and it often accompanies dark, medieval imagery. These things inspire us. We do not think it hampers that much at all how people may interpret our songs. This is serious music, we feel, and we do not want people to think of it as a temporary fad. The intro track was inspired directly from the album art, which was inspired by the death of children. As far as the lyrics, first, thank you for the compliment, and second, that is how we write words. We prefer lyrics to be poetic and emotional, like a ritual, rather than simple and mindless to appease the ignorant.
RS: Death is the ultimate end, the true doom of all things. Even if someone believes that consciousness, or a soul, exists and continues beyond the expiration of this flesh, there is nobody that states for certainty with proof that such is the case. Death is the ravishing fear that embodies intelligent life. It is quite romantic to conceive this idea, however. If I am to return or move on in some way when my body ceases to live then I do not want it to be done at the expense of a wasted life.
DC: Tell us about you as a person. Do you walk really slowly and with your head down? How often do you get depressed? When in the rare case you're not writing new Sardonicous songs, what do you do? How is life in NY? Does it in any way influence the music of Sardonicous? RS: I do my best to avoid contact with people. I make my living as a musician. I study ninjutsu.
DC (Kunal N. Choksi) : Thank you very much for taking out time to answer these grave questions. Your epitaphic last words go here.
- Interview conducted by Kunal N. Choksi
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Mortuus', and now that I learn from you that you are already half way through writing another album those few cells that managed to revive themselves are totally resentful and are seriously contemplating suicide in the face of another Rigor Sardonicous deathscan. Five releases in five years – how is the band able to produce music at such a consistently brisk rate? You don't want your listeners to wake up at all from the grave your music thrusts them into, do you? 
DC: Obviously the band is obsessed with death. Why death? How would you interpret death? Do you believe in life after death? Like when some of your listeners miraculously wake up and walk away after listening to an entire Rigor Sardonicous album or show? 
