What is Rotgod?

For a decade now, the entity known as ROTGOD has been conspiring within the filthiest depths of the metal/hardcore underground scene from Catania (already known, back in the 80s, as the hometown of cult thrashcore gems such as Schizo and Incinerator) to create the most grotesque and outrageous attacks against the ideals of "purity", "decency", "beauty" and "common sense" that can possibly be expressed in (anti)musical form - carrying the scepter of the aforementioned cult sicilian bands with titles such as "Sonic degeneracy", "Polemics and obscenity", "Sybaritic metal", "Jesus Christ pornostar" and "Raw is the law".

The only person at fault for the existence of this wretched project is Noise Maniakk - namely, the equally wretched individual who's writing these paragraphs right now: as a fan of the most chaotic, raw, primitive, underground forms of extreme metal from the 80s, I've always felt the urge to use this music genre as an outlet for self-expression, and at the same time fill a vacuum I've always perceived within the modern metal scene since I first entered it, sensing the absence of the primitive extremism from those older records I so much adored - never really replicated, not even by most so-called "retro" acts from the latest decades.

As a consequence, Rotgod has an ambivalent function for me - both as a form of personal catharsis and a declaration of war against certain views that are way too predominant nowadays. First off: the typically modern, sanitized, wimped out vision for today's metal and hardcore (which I attack in some of my lyrics such as "Raw is the law" and "Insipid metal"); second, a variety of broader worldviews that have been making a comeback over the last decade within our cultural Zeitgeist - a comeback I had already seen coming long ago, sensing the retrograde, idealistic, puritanical, authoritarian nature of said ideas.

"Freedom" also means freedom to be rotten, degenerate, sleazy, godless, cynical, dissolute, grotesque, "poor taste" people from the perspective of so-called "good mannered" people. Rotgod asserts said freedom in the most violent, unhinged way possible - by ruthlessly bashing the skulls and torturing the ears of anyone daring to oppose, in a pure demonstration of "sadistic anti-musical sociopathy".

BE PROUD OF BEING ANIMAL.

FAST, RAW, NOISY, OLD SCHOOL DEATH/THRASH/CORE - FOR TRUE NOISE MANIAKKS ONLY!

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To read Rotgod's complete history since 2015, go to the CHRONOLOGY section!

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

And now, let's shed some light over the doubts, rumors and misconceptions that have spread over the years about my cute little sonic Dunwich horror.

What the hell is Rotgod exactly? A band or a solo project?

Whatever definition you feel like using, I'm fine with it. Personally, I've always liked to consider myself a one man band. After all, if Bathory and Nine Inch Nails can be treated as bands, I guess the same can be done for Rotgod. But it's up to you really.

Where does the name "Rotgod" come from?

I just wanted something catchy and instantly memorable, similar to other old school band names uniting two words into one such as "Darkthrone", "Deathrow" or "Manowar". The inspiration for the name Rotgod was mostly nietzschian in nature, and was also supposed to tie in with the concept for a song called "God is dead (yet his corpse still fuckin' stinks)" that could have been used as title-track for the first demo, but ended up never being written at all once this "first demo" plan was scrapped due to the so-called "hard drive disaster" where I lost nearly all the songs I had written up to that point - forcing me to start over from scratch, mostly with newer ideas by then. To know more about this, read the chronology and the "History of Sonic degeneracy" article.

And the name Noise Maniakk? Where does it come from?

This one is much simpler: I just wanted to pick a "musical alias" for myself, as many old metal musicians used to do. I don't think the name needs much explanation: I'll just say the double K is a homage to Sadistik Exekution's "FUKK".

How did you manage to make all this music in so little time?

I didn't: actually, I've been writing and recording music for much longer. "Sonic degeneracy", which is by far my most packed work, was written between 2015 and 2017 and then recorded between 2017 and 2020. This means that, when I released the first handful of singles around summer 2021, I already had the entire record done.

If I search "Rotgod" I find some weird electronica stuff, is that still you?

Nope - it's just a project with the same name, born during the years I was still busy working on "Sonic degeneracy" and hadn't released anything online yet. I don't care anyway: I love the Rotgod moniker, I know for a fact I'm the one who came up with it first in 2015, back when there was no one using it online, and I have no plans to give up the name.

Do you play all instruments? Are drums real or programmed?

All instruments are real. A project with such fervent old school roots could never use programmed drums: on the contrary, I spent much time making sure they sounded as "vintage" and organic as possible - something I think I have finally achieved with "Polemics and obscenity" and subsequent releases.

However, I could never play everything by myself. Generally speaking, I'm an awful musician (one of those who enter freeze mode the very moment they push record button), and most importantly, I never learned to play drums. Over the years, I've been lucky to work with various friends and musicians from the young sicilian metal scene, especially in regards to drums and guitar solos (another thing I never really learned how to play), while I've always taken care of most rhythm guitars and bass - though still not ruling out guest appearances in those departments, as in the case of the excellent bass lines recorded by the legendary Krost von Barbarie (Eraser, Spasticus, Barbarie DIY Records) for various tracks on the "Sonic degeneracy" and "Polemics and obscenity" records.

Which are your main musical influences?

All the rawest, fastest, most extreme underground shit from the 80s - most notably, the international tape-trading scene.

Mainly the rawer, more death/black-leaning forms of 80's thrash (Sodom, Merciless, Schizo, Necrodeath, Sepultura, Sarcófago, Mutilator, Sadus, Protector, Sextrash, Massacra, Slaughter, Incubus/Opprobrium, Kreator, Destruction, Rigor Mortis, Deceased, Mutilator/Mutilated from France etc.) and the thrashcore/crossover/grindcore scene of the time (D.R.I., Wehrmacht, S.O.D., M.O.D., Cryptic Slaughter, Lärm, Carnivore, Napalm Death, Unseen Terror, Cerebral Fix, Ratos de Porão, Chronical Diarrhoea, Crumbsuckers, Cro-Mags, Agnostic Front, Fearless Iranians From Hell, Incinerator, Cerebral Fix, Blood, DBC, Nuclear Death, Regurgitation/O.L.D., Macabre, Necrobutcher, Anal Cunt, Spazztic Blurr etc.). Anyone claiming to be an extreme metal fan MUST know these older gems, which laid the groundwork for the genre's development.

Outside of metal and hardcore, an important influence for me has always been noise rock in the vein of Jesus Lizard, Big Black and Rapeman (R.I.P. Steve Albini), and I also feel very fascinated by industrial/post-punk aesthetics. Which is why I made a Swans cover song for "Polemics and obscenity"!

Does "Sonic degeneracy" sound this raw by design?

My reference for Rotgod's sound has always been the bands mentioned above - especially the sawing, hyper-harsh sound of bands like Sodom and Schizo.

That being said - it's undeniable that at the time, being my first recording experience and doing everything by myself, I didn't fully know what the heck I was doing: I was young, enthusiastic and relentless, and the technical limitations I couldn't see at the time would come back later and bite me in the ass when reaching mixing stage. However, all these misadventures would prove to be highly educational, so that in later works (such as "Polemics and obscenity" and "Raw is the law") I could get a much closer sound to the one I always envisioned - still raw, organic and lightyears away from modern metal standards.

And most importantly: NO TRIGGERED DRUMS!

Which records did inspire you in engineering/recording/mixing Rotgod?

• Schizo - Main frame collapse / Total schizophrenia (guitar tone)

• Kreator - Endless pain (guitar tone)

• Sodom - Obsessed by cruelty / Persecution mania / Agent orange (guitar/bass tone)

• Carnivore - Retaliation (guitar/bass tone)

• Type O Negative - Slow, deep and hard (guitar/bass tone, drum sound)

• Mondocane - Project one (guitar tone)

• Motorhead - Overkill (bass tone)

• Sarcófago - I.N.R.I. (drum sound)

• Bathory - The return...... (drum sound)

• Venom - Black metal (drum sound)

• Warfare - Pure filth (drum sound)

Your influences vocally?

Ingo (Schizo, Necrodeath), S.B. Reder (Schizo), Darren Travis (Sadus), Schmier (Destruction), Max Cavalera (Sepultura), Nik Bullen (Napalm Death, "Scum" side A), Peter Steele (Carnivore/Repulsion era), Tom Angelripper (Sodom), Dani Filth (Cradle of Filth), Billy Milano (S.O.D./M.O.D.), Steve Austin (Today is the Day)

Is Rotgod a "retro band"?

I'm not fond of this term, I find it limiting. Of course, all my musical influences date back to at least thirty years ago, but I never wanted to just pay tribute them in a slavish, paint-by-numbers fashion. In reality, my creative approach is very loose, eclectic and "fluid" so to speak - and that's exactly due to the absence of strict boundaries within the nascent underground scene of the 80s, which allowed each band to develop their own personality and voice instead of preemptively picking up some stock subgenre and adhering to it rigidly, as many do today. This is the approach I want to regain, more than anything else: go back to those basics, and see where to go from there.

Is Rotgod a "meme band"? Or, more precisely, a comedic/joke project?

No. Comedy/parody music has been a huge influence on me since a young age, but having some humor-themed songs or a few meme/pop culture references doesn't mean being a "joke" band. It was completely normal, for thrashcore/grindcore bands in the 80s, to pack their records with silly joke songs, stupid skits or "mundane" references - but they still remained 100% serious, legit bands when it came to their brand of boundary-pushing sonic extremism. Well, those bands are indeed my inspirations, but I apply their attitude to modern times and concepts instead of doing empty revivalism, as I said earlier.

Stop looking at everything with the lenses of today's scene, using Instagram meme bands or shitty gimmick-oriented acts such as Gutalax or Party Cannon as your references: go listen to some Unseen Terror, S.O.D. or Regurgitation - YOU UNCULTURED FUKKING ZOOMER NOOBS!

Is Rotgod an Andrea Diprè themed band?

Nope - but he does often cross over, thematically and philosophically, with Rotgod's lyrical concepts. After all, he's the closest person I know to a contemporary GG Allin.

Are your lyrics more focused on satanism in the vein of bands like Sarcófago, early Sodom and Necrodeath, or social topics in the vein of hardcore/crossover bands?

A mix of both. As I said earlier, I have no interest in pandering to any compartmentalized "retro" current, nor in handing some pre-packaged "fan service" to this or that particular audience. I'm only interested in pursuing my own vision, which of course involves a lot of anti-religious iconoclasm (starting already from bandname and logo, all the way up to lyrics for songs like "The serpent's speech") but also a lot of social commentary and tongue-in-cheek satire - two components that are actually two sides of the same coin, given the times we're living in.

Is Rotgod right-wing or left-wing? Is it a "problematic"/"sketchy" band?

Personally, I've always been a strongly pro-enlightenment, pro-rationalist, pro-secular and anti-authoritarian individual: this without a doubt won't make me likable to reactionary zoomer prudes who spend their days posing online as crusaders, spamming "Christ is king" everywhere and posting evolian/neo-luddite schizo ramblings from their 1000-euro iPhones - but at the same time my foul-mouthed, dissolute, libertine, cynical, nihilistic attitude, coupled with my skepticism towards any big utopia, has also gotten me in some trouble with certain fractions of the progressive front.

Over the years, I've indeed written various songs criticizing both the far-right and the far-left - so, depending on which song you find first, you might develop a different idea on who I am, what my ideas are, and which spaces I deserve to be "cancelled" from. Nowadays, with the benefit of hindsight, I'm trying in my more recent lyrics to "condensate" my critiques towards different political factions all together, in order to avoid any misunderstanding, misquoting and decontextualization. Just to be clear, whoever you are and whatever you believe in: if you expect Rotgod to be a mouthpiece for your pet ideology based on a few lyrics you've stumbled across - well, too bad, I can't wait to disappoint you with some other lyrics you HAVEN'T read yet.

On a final note: anyone not tolerating any critique towards his ideology is a braindead snowflake NPC, and deserves to have all his certainties shattered with the utmost amount of douchebaggery. NEVER CATER TO ANYONE - PISS EVERYONE OFF!

Are your works only available in digital format?

No. The early singles were only supposed to spread around the web, but I've released various physical material since then, which you can find on my official Bandcamp page. The "Sonic degeneracy" CD (12-track edition) can be purchased via Barbarie DIY Records or Lunar Light Records.

What's with all the different versions of "Sonic degeneracy"? What are the differences? I don't understand haaaaaalp

"Sonic degeneracy" is a fairly massive work, originally conceived as a double album (Vol. I and Vol. II), with a length that might sure prove challenging both for the listeners and for the various physical supports that are supposed to host the record (CD, cassette, vinyl etc.).

The CD edition ("A senseless selection from the insane complete work") can be considered to be the "standard" version, featuring only 12 tracks and having a "normal" length, and I recommend it particularly to "newbie" listeners who are approaching my music for the first time. On my official Bandcamp page, you can instead find the "extended digital edition", which is indeed the complete album as it was envisioned originally, divided in Vol. I and Vol. II. We may think of it as the "director's cut" of the record, and I recommend it particularly to the fellow noise maniakks and radicals who have enjoyed the standard edition but are hungry for even more rawness, noise and dementia: this is exactly what they're going to get.

Have you ever released anything on vinyl?

Fuck yes! "Raw is the law" is available on 12" vinyl to order from my own Bandcamp page. Be quick though: it's a very limited edition - 30 copies only, including some really cool special inserts to celebrate Rotgod's ten-year anniversary of rawness and noise!

Have you ever/will you ever perform live?

Unfortunately, it's never been possible thus far: attempts have been made, but things have never worked out the right way. Still, never say never!

If for some weird and unexplainable reason you're curious to know even more about the twisted mind behind Rotgod, check out the Noise Maniakk section of the site.

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