MITOCHONDRION - Vitriseptome (2LP) (2024)
It often feels like there isn't enough mystery in today's music. So while I already owned their 2013 "Antinumerology" seven inch, which I got by chance mainly because of the awesome, for that format unusually detailed cover artwork, as well as "In Cronian Hour", their 2016 split single with Auroch, I never investigated further into Mitochondrion and didn't even know they were Canadians.
There just was a certain fascinated joy in having these two obscure, absolutely bonkers Death Metal discs in my collection with no context whatsoever.
Well, that has changed now. I have learned that there were two albums before and a long hiatus after those two smaller releases. And here they are, thirteen years after "Parasignosis" with a staggering more is more effort to make up for the long time more informed fans than me had to wait.
Everything about this almost one and a half hour long double LP is too much. "Vitriseptome" is an overwhelming assault of abundance: the dissonance, sick lead guitars, gutturally growling voices, the sheer amount of chaotic layers at any given moment. The many intros / intermissions, which still don't help to make these seventeen tracks feel like something other than one single gigantic storm of all-consuming hellfire. Even the long somehow occult lyrics (which of course you cannot understand anyway) and notes in the big booklet are just a sheer imposition of excess. Who even has the time and motivation to unpack all this?
Yes, the monumental plethora of just everything makes it hard to grasp this album. It will probably take me another couple of weeks to even fully believe that this rabid world-devouring behemoth even exists. But as hard as it is to fathom what Mitochondrion have crafted here, as easy it is to love it!
Of course there are already plenty of artists out there doing great kindred things. The amalgam of atmosphere, bestiality, virtuosity and cavernous but powerful production that comes together on "Vitriseptome" however remains very special. And again - the sheer amount of events in this music! Other bands need years of building an extensive discography to accumulate that.
Mitochondrion slap our ears with new sonic information on every turn, nothing stays the same for long, all is in a continuous flux of almost ridiculously savage mayhem. And even though at least the quick fade-in / fade-out of "[intraluxiform]" and the twenty seconds of white noise in the nameless interlude track "[]" give it a fair shot, these eighty-five minutes ultimately manage to pass by without as much as one dull moment. Oh, wait! The (backwards?) title track may actually be it. But that's still not even two minutes of uhm... challenging hubbub - and somehow even this works in context here, as it is immediately followed by the album's stunning finale, consisting of two over eleven minutes each killer tracks.
"Vitriseptome" may have come out only a short while ago in November, but despite the brief getting-to-know phase I can already say with confidence that this is my greatest personal favorite within the realm of Dissonant Death Metal since my album of the year 2021, Ad Nauseam's "Imperative Imperceptible Impulse".
So yeah, file this under Metal that beats Blood Incantation in 2024 and waste no time before you check this out! My only regret is that I waited ten, maybe fifteen minutes too long with the purchase and thus missed the coloured vinyl edition. Thinking about it again classic black may even suit the artwork better though.
There just was a certain fascinated joy in having these two obscure, absolutely bonkers Death Metal discs in my collection with no context whatsoever.
Well, that has changed now. I have learned that there were two albums before and a long hiatus after those two smaller releases. And here they are, thirteen years after "Parasignosis" with a staggering more is more effort to make up for the long time more informed fans than me had to wait.
Everything about this almost one and a half hour long double LP is too much. "Vitriseptome" is an overwhelming assault of abundance: the dissonance, sick lead guitars, gutturally growling voices, the sheer amount of chaotic layers at any given moment. The many intros / intermissions, which still don't help to make these seventeen tracks feel like something other than one single gigantic storm of all-consuming hellfire. Even the long somehow occult lyrics (which of course you cannot understand anyway) and notes in the big booklet are just a sheer imposition of excess. Who even has the time and motivation to unpack all this?
Yes, the monumental plethora of just everything makes it hard to grasp this album. It will probably take me another couple of weeks to even fully believe that this rabid world-devouring behemoth even exists. But as hard as it is to fathom what Mitochondrion have crafted here, as easy it is to love it!
Of course there are already plenty of artists out there doing great kindred things. The amalgam of atmosphere, bestiality, virtuosity and cavernous but powerful production that comes together on "Vitriseptome" however remains very special. And again - the sheer amount of events in this music! Other bands need years of building an extensive discography to accumulate that.
Mitochondrion slap our ears with new sonic information on every turn, nothing stays the same for long, all is in a continuous flux of almost ridiculously savage mayhem. And even though at least the quick fade-in / fade-out of "[intraluxiform]" and the twenty seconds of white noise in the nameless interlude track "[]" give it a fair shot, these eighty-five minutes ultimately manage to pass by without as much as one dull moment. Oh, wait! The (backwards?) title track may actually be it. But that's still not even two minutes of uhm... challenging hubbub - and somehow even this works in context here, as it is immediately followed by the album's stunning finale, consisting of two over eleven minutes each killer tracks.
"Vitriseptome" may have come out only a short while ago in November, but despite the brief getting-to-know phase I can already say with confidence that this is my greatest personal favorite within the realm of Dissonant Death Metal since my album of the year 2021, Ad Nauseam's "Imperative Imperceptible Impulse".
So yeah, file this under Metal that beats Blood Incantation in 2024 and waste no time before you check this out! My only regret is that I waited ten, maybe fifteen minutes too long with the purchase and thus missed the coloured vinyl edition. Thinking about it again classic black may even suit the artwork better though.
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