Broken teeth, lodged swords, and blister-wracked neural tubes developed on a cosmic scale greet the listener with pitch black radiation, a chaotic and frying hiss emanated from the long fermenting caverns of Vancouver, British Colombia-based experimental death metal quartet MITOCHONDRION who return over a decade beyond their mightiest, most horrified mark upon the realm with a third full-length album. The infinite variables of life’s code, psychosis-summoned sacred mathematical analysis, and the inversion of all law-set understanding of nature set the message of ‘Vitriseptome‘ as time-altered death worship, a scratched and blurred lens into morbid rites and seeming infinite layers of entropic recension. Though much of the experience is thought scouring pandemonium and myriad-angled wrath there is yet a theme conveyed and depth steadily revealed as this challenging death metal experience realizes its ambitious third ascension of their gig.

Mitochondrion formed circa 2003 between folks who’d been involved in their local tech-death scenery including some adjacency to a pre-Archspire group. They’d take about three years to develop their own capability and style through a couple of extended demos. The second demo (‘Through Cosmic Gaze‘, 2006) from their efforts would amount to the best-known original line-up though the drum seat had changed to longtime batterer and sometimes engineer Karl Godard at that point. There was no direct hint made as to what they were capable of beyond an erratic, volatile and organically swatted style of death metal (I’d reference Deicide, Immolation and The Chasm here and there) though the frantic bursts of brutal and fast-scaling riff would carry over into the development of their now legendary debut LP (‘Archaeaeon‘, 2008). Yanking loose the world’s wounds unto psychotic occult font that first album was nothing short of a revelation for those interested in technical, avant-garde and esoteric death metal and of course the most common perception at the time was that it was an amplification of Portal‘s first two releases and to be fair the use of noise and muddier production values helped usher in said comparison. Still, a certain element of blackened and/or bestial bravado alongside martial soundscapes and psychedelic swells helped to differentiate their sense of movement and overall scope of inspiration. That first album build some fealty on my part, loving the overall renaissance of occult and abstract death metal ushered in beyond the early 2000’s and considering their work that next level of extremity sans gimmickry.

By the time Mitochondrion would release their second album (‘Parasignosis‘, 2011) bassist/noisesmith Nick Gibas (Heirophant, Bent Window Records) had left and the band momentarily continued on as a trio. At the time I’d placed it at #12 on my Best of 2011 list and commented ““Parasignosis endlessly vexes me, like a caveman-doing-physics. The atmosphere carries the listener on a slick death metal ride that plays as a nigh continuously flowing listen. I’m not sure what any of it means, but it makes me uncomfortable enough to keep coming back for another listen.” as it’d been a much more violent, spastically asserted release that’ emphasized both chaotic and cavernous elements of their sound at an even more ruinous pace. I’d say if you’re a fan of Hissing that second record probably speaks in similar tongues, or excites a similar part of the brain as it tramples on. Per my experience it persist as a death spiral, an internal unraveling that is challenging and almost painful in its scouring render and wrathful vocals. The big change from album to album as far as I saw it back in 2011 was a more focused, nihilistic corridor of energy which side-stepped the bounding, spastic wonderment of the debut. ‘Antinumerology‘ (2013) upheld the momentum of that second album as part of their process in 2012 and as key members of both Mitochondrion and Auroch logically fused (and also managed a split 7″, ‘In Cronian Hour‘ circa 2016) as Shawn Haché (Egregore, Reversed) joined the latter for their remaining discography and Sebastian Montesi joined the former, participating in the 2017 and beyond craft of ‘Vitriseptome‘.

That is to say that this nearly ~90 minute double LP has been in development on some level for a minimum of five years with Nick Yanchuk engineering and arranging ‘Vitriseptome‘ between 2017-2022 and Xavier Berthiaume mixing and mastering the lot of it from late 2022 ’til early 2023. Expansive and detailed as their work is at a glance it’d be fair to say that all aspects of Mitochondrion‘s work have had some time to cook and be considered, injected with their signature psychosis over such a span of time. As a result they’ve structured their work into a triskelion of sorts and… one that doesn’t necessarily reveal itself at a glance beyond the erratically charged four sides included which are punctuated by a number of interludes and noisome integration (some via the aforementioned Gibas) which either introduce larger pieces or signify a chapter finishing its stretch. I won’t go out on a limb and try to figure out the specifics of this but I will suggest up front that this is a challenging format, likely intentionally so as no certain element of ‘Vitriseptome‘ is delivered with clarity

“Increatum Vox” opens with a familiar barreling, punitive demand amidst wailing leads and shocking strikes as the furor generated whips fast. It is a noisome, bestial nuke that keeps on giving chaotic pulses without necessarily allowing the rhythm guitar tone to appear fully within their fog of war. Scrambling leads and bellowing vocals eventually signal the march outward yet the song itself is an eternally bashed-through event upon first encounter. There is singed, nose-piercing ozone emanating off of the scattered blaze they’ve opened with and while it isn’t outright beastly craft there is an extraterrestrial savagery applied to its movement, an uneasy and brutal whip through. Rather than flit to the next song (“The Erythapside”) the two pieces are linked in direct flow, bearing no interruption for the listener paying rapt attention to each new development. While there might be a flail of guitar feedback or resounding chord held between pieces this continuity of the running order binds each piece with a steady diabolic yet surreal sense of atmospheric pressure as all instruments resound upward-shot and launched from the attack of their percussion from song to song.

While those first two pieces were an exciting return to the extreme scalding touch of Mitochondrion at world’s end it was “Oblithemesis” that’d grabbed my ear first in terms of its neatly writ and often brutal arrangements as some of the haze lifted by way of surreal lead guitar breaks and use of dissonant rhythmic shrugs. Beyond that point “Vacuuole” and “Flail, Faexregem!” appear to end the first chapter, or, part of the greater suggested trilogy here. If nothing else that pair of songs offers some of the most volcanic, tormented blackened death metal available to ‘Vitriseptome‘ as focused, dark and empyrean struck pieces that use leads in a thrilling way. If you are looking for the best of what these folks have to offer in terms of densely writ abstraction and narrative strokes applied to chaotic death metal regalia that is the ~18 minute pocket you’ll want to focus on. I particularly love the transition between the two pieces, a natural wheeling into “Flail, Faexregem!” with layers of nigh arabesque leads cycling upward before their battle ensues. No doubt listeners will appreciate this song as an impure death metal highlight for the sake of multiple rhythm guitar channels revealing themselves in a most clear way while making room for sheets of guitar noise and all manner of buried accoutrement adding to the din.

While it’d make sense to continue to place Mitochondrion in a certain era, a renaissance for the abstraction of death metal during a time of obscurant sound design and experimentation beyond third generation canonical expression, this is partially for the sake of honoring their signature sound with production values that incur the surreal afterimage of ‘Archaeaeon‘ to start but eventually reveal the more brutal stoicism of their releases beyond that point. On that same note the soaring, organische tech-death spiritus of the band relevant to the era of I dunno, Nile or even Mithras, still spikes through the clouds here and there in a not so obvious way as we step into another considerable pairing (or, trio) via “The Protanthrofuge” and “Argentum Mortifixion” where breaths are taken, lead guitar flourishes whip up characteristically and the overall sense of death metal built upon a sensation of chaos begins to set in. By then you’ve learned the language the guitarists speak, and probably broken through the obscurant nature of their sound design if not already familiar with the structural tics of the previous two releases. Per my experience the veil had only continued to lift beyond Side B via the considerable feature of Side C where “The Cruxitome” offered the first real fist above the grave, a blustering release of their tunneling pressure which allows the final act to sort itself out between two ~12 minute songs.

Rather than continue to impress upon the reader the play-by-play of the final section of this considerable, taxing work I’d suggest that at this point we’ve already gotten all that anyone’d possibly expect from Mitochondrion in terms of both characteristic action and expansion of their point of view. Obscurant storytelling, a fully custom vernacular brimming with chaotic rejection of forms, and a stream of consciousness that invokes imaginative and impossibly dark vision in its wake. This is still more than enough, more extreme and volatile than most of what folks are willing or capable of creating anymore, and it reads as a natural extension of their world where challenging movements and harrowing sound design amount to no real safe space for the ear beyond wailing solo or damning riff here and there. ‘Vitriseptome‘ doesn’t offer any obvious guidance or purpose up front and instead reads as a gradual siphoning through extreme action, steadily depicting the sapping of life first into heated chaotic embattlement and then cold resignation unto the final chapter. Without footholds and any fully immersive shifts away from that core verve these ~90 minutes almost demand a single sitting, a contiguous listen not only for their neatly sewn together consideration but the unreal continuity crafted otherwise through smaller vignettes all of which are entirely relevant to the atmosphere and direction of the full listen. It is a maddening ask and a desirous effect which does ultimately offer respite as often as it flails harm if you’ve the constitution to sit and allow their more caustic designs their intended effect.

Antespiritual death-artes revive. — Arriving at the larger point here I’d confidently grant Mitochondrion the freedom to create not as expected but toward their own esoteric interests, upholding the obscure underground spiritus of their creation with new levels of tact and terror. That said the end result and overall effect of ‘Vitriseptome‘ naturally fits into the miasmic reality one’d anticipate upon learning they’d returned to form er, formless. Rather than view this double LP and its soul-scouring demand in the fashion one might view a progressive music dual-longplayer to form rounded cohesion I’d present the whole of this experience as a pilgrimage toward death wherein the tunnel carved it is longest stretch to date, the dearth of direction allows the mind to assemble and disassemble at will, and the endpoint is cumulative in the sense that the listener has earned the veil of life lifted “Viabyssm” and “Antitonement” offer their mutilating, ominous gloria.

This is as big as such an event could be without losing even the most patient ear yet there is always a reward for attention paid to detail and this also includes the packaging itself where designs from Cold Poison illicit primal-spiritual responses and a ~28 page booklet (per the vinyl version) explodes before the curious eye with more than enough to busy the mind as the whole deal spins through its considerable length. So, in most direct terms yes this album is a big and challenging ask but these fellowes have considered the user experience almost as much as their own personal expression here, allowing for some appreciable access to their vision.

With a full month of listening to ‘Vitriseptome‘ in mind I feel as if I’ve just now begun to breach a level of comfort and understanding of its munition, confident of its greater outline and core design ethos yet still willing to muse over the more detailed facets of meaning available. That is to say that I believe this album will have legs with those willing to take on a considerable work and reconsider it for months and years to come, this is of course a big ask for folks who’d treat the plethora of music available today as one-and-done burners given face value swipes left-or-right. Alas there couldn’t have been any other way to achieve this work in separate chapters or pieces that’d have as much impact when given due course and I think listeners who already trust Mitochondrion‘s hand will be best served here by this most ambitious stroke yet. As such, I do not think the reductive, scatterbrained attention-deficit state of the general public today is worthy of this work at all and would largely recommend this experience to folks who’ve some sense of the continuum that surrounds this work. To those who’ve some curiosity for a demanding as possible, long-spiraling trudge toward the abyss a very high recommendation.

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