Over a decade ago I was taking a deep dive into underground metal, moving away from the doom and thrash and hardcore that had dominated my heaviest listening and looking at what new death and black metal bands had to offer. I found myself enthralled by many of them, but one band in particular hit the heaviest. Vancouver’s Mitochondrion had released Parasignosis and unveiled to me the densest, darkest death metal I had ever experienced. The experience of hearing that album for the first time was tantamount to uncovering the Necronomicon in The Evil Dead and unwittingly unleashing ancient, chaotic, and murderous demons into my very soul until they infected every node and pustule with the unfathomable, unknowable and ancient terrors that only H.P. Lovecraft could conjure in his darkest dreams.
Mitochondrion make labyrinthian towers of harsh intensity, and since its release in 2011, Parasignosis has maintained its position as one of the most dense and heavy death metal records I have ever heard. So much so, that I held it in a venerable state, only listening to it when I knew I needed to be mentally and sonically eviscerated. For 13 years, Mitochondrion waited, popping up for an EP and a split EP in 2013 and 2016 respectively, but so much time had passed, I assumed the band to be over. I was wrong in that assumption, but a lot has happened since 2011 in the death metal arena that raises questions about what a new Mitochondrion album would sound like. (Un)rest assured, this band has lost none of their power on their latest, Vitriseptome.
Firstly, you should be warned that this thing is like a feature film-length double album. The time that has passed between albums apparently built up an immense body of work that has been refined and unleashed in all of its glory. Secondly, you should know that this is my biggest complaint about this release.
There is 30 seconds of a rising, hellish intro before we are thrown into a maelstrom of interlocking riffs and Mitochondrion‘s multiple vocalists going full-chested and -throated into the speakers on “Increatum Vox.” This welcomed return of their insanity feels immediately comfortable if you’re already a fan, like a snug-fitting iron maiden. The band blazes through ever changing parts with their signature thickness and an agility that takes each track to the verge of losing control, but landing the mark with enough precision to keep it in check and enough swing to make it feel natural. The amount of hell this three-piece band can summon is a thing of non-Euclidean beauty. For all of the newer bands that have risen to the top of the death metal underground, Mitochondrion are still inimitable.
They employ some new tricks as well and a few moments throughout the album to break up the sonic intensity, but most of the album is a bombardment of careening riffs, punishing drums, and the Stygian Beach Boys layering of contrasting guttural growls and Deadite screams. “Increatum Vox” throws a stutter effect for a brief moment that highlights the staccato rhythm. “Vacuuole” is a stand-out track that throws in some gorgeous synth work, reminiscent of Emperor and channels Goblin‘s Suspiria with background chants of ‘flesh‘ during one movement. “Flail, Faexregem!” packs a killer guitar solo and ends in a nightmare mantra: ‘crawl into the flame within.’
There are a few interludes as well, small points of noisy respite from the storm. “[intraluxiform]” is a brief fade-in to utter insanity in one of the most chaotic and energizing pieces of music on Vitriseptome before fading out, like opening a door to torturous depths of Pandemonium and slowly closing it before you get sucked in. Later, “[]” sounds like standing next to a full speed jet engine as it transitions to the title track, which is essentially an extended interlude that is an exercise in drone, backmasking layered vocals, and scaring the shit out of anyone in earshot. These transition into the final 22 minutes of the album, two massive tracks.
“Viabyssm” is a tremendous workout in blackened death metal technicality that ends in a murky trance inducing outro. While “Antitonement” takes a slower approach, starting with mid-paced death metal, ramping things up to eventually go full death-doom in the last third of the track. This tempered stage bow is a necessary slow come down from the brain gelatinizing trip that is Vitriseptome. There is so much to unpack here, an already musically dense band dropping their first album since before Game Of Thrones premiered on HBO and Osama Bin Laden was still alive that is pushing 90 minutes. It is difficult to process it all, even after multiple listens.
Vitriseptome has too much to offer before the cyclone of riffs becomes a blur. After each full listen I needed to transition into softer music to calm my mind. This is far more digestible taken in pieces, and while each full track is a triumph in Mitochondrion‘s mission to pulverize our fragile sanity, the whole experience may have been better over two albums. Regardless, we did get more Mitochondrion, and even if it takes another decade for album number 4, the tracks on Vitriseptome will deliver for years to come. They remain in their own echelon, true to their own sound despite years of trends, and still deal in mindfuckingly heavy death metal.
