UN: Vallis Ex Umbra De Mortuus shows the Rigor Sardonicous sound reaching horrific and ridiculously heavy perfection. Did you guys approach the songwriting any different with this album than you have with previous albums? Was it important to top the previous album?

RS: Thank you for the blessed critique and for this chat. We see it as a growth. We will not change what we do for it is very natural to us. Ironically enough, we do not want to release repetitive material where there is a stasis of sound and style.

UN: Would you agree that the Rigor Sardonicous sound is not for everyone? Is it more important for the band to play music that pleases your ears first and foremost and if other people enjoy that is just extra icing on the cake?

RS: That is accurate. What made us focused in our interpretations is the lack of it elsewhere.

UN: To my ears, the band has a horrific feel, an almost sense of foreboding doom. Would you say it is intentional to create a horrific atmosphere in the music? In all honesty if you took out the vocals the music would work perfectly as a horror movie score.

RS: For what we do the sense of horror must be real. We strive to articulate such a sense on a very primal level; a raw, limbic feeling that is not entirely conscious. We will seek to make our music a soundtrack to a film sometime.

UN: I noticed that despite the songs being quite slow in nature, the songs themselves aren't very lengthy. Would you say it was a conscious decision to keep the songs a reasonable length? I think when bands have songs that are like 18 minutes long it can sometimes be a bit much.

RS: Quite so. Unless a song can capture one's attention for that long then there is little desire, on our part, to feed the atmosphere with sonic vibrations simply for the sake of a trend.

UN: The band has a very unique and fitting vocal approach. Do you guys use pitch shifting at all or are the vocals all natural?

RS: We used to rely on the pitch-shifter entirely but now we combine a natural approach combined with the effect.

UN: The album has a very gothic and haunting style of artwork used in the booklet. How did the booklet design come together? Did you have a specific idea in mind? It's quite a different look than the previous album covers I would say.

RS: The idea has been there for some time but finding the artist to make it happen was troubling. We felt we warranted a more involved layout, especially since it reflects the direct influence of this particular work.

UN: Is it much easier to work with drum programming than it is a real drummer? Just having two people in the band must make decisions much easier and if you had a drummer it would be tough to find someone with the right type of restraint to play in a band like this. Flashy fills just wouldn't fit if you ask me.

RS: It is easier, yes. Anytime we have attempted human drummers it did not work, for multiple reasons. This manner allows us to be more creative, which presents us with unique challenges. You are correct that flash is not proper for us. We used to be criticized heavily for our use a drum machine but since it has become almost the norm within the previous few years to use drum triggers, the aforementioned viewpoint has altered to one of respect at times.

UN: You have been with Paragon Records for a few releases now. How have things been working out with the label? I know in the past you guys were releasing the albums yourselves, has this made it much easier on the band? You can mainly concentrate of the music and don't have to worry about the pressing etc.

RS: Paragon has been very good for us. It grew to be very problematic handling all of the details on our own.

UN: Does the band play live often? Is it just the two of you up on stage? Do you do anything special stage show wise or is it just two guys playing apocalyptic doom at frightening volumes?

RS: Rarely do we play out and yes there are only two of us. We like to have a stage show and a presence that is mesmerizing to compliment our sound.

UN: Using the drum machine must help in a live setting as well. There is nothing more boring than waiting for a band to set up, particularly the drums. You guys have taken that whole part out of the equation. Is setting up at gigs relatively stress free or is there a lot of drum machine related set up as well? I'm assuming monitors are very important when using a drum machine.

RS: The only difficult encountered with this comes from those bands and crews who do not comprehend the simplicity and ease of its setup. If they would just let us plug it in and handle it on our own end then there would be much less drama and confusion.

UN: Your music paints a fairly dreary picture, but Im somewhat assuming that you guys dont sit around in the dark wishing for the end of the world. Do you think it is kind of silly when bands take their musical style very personally and for lack of a better word begin to live the style? Black metal for instance, you have the church burnings and whatnot.

RS: One at the very least must be in tune with what it is they are representing. Fallacy can be seen in the insincere many do take these perceptions to an immature level.

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