In 13 years, anyone who was impressed by Parasignosis (2011) back in the day may have forgotten that in the shadows, Vancouver’s occult Mitochondrion was preparing a new assault. Lasting almost an hour and a half, Vitriseptome is sinister, enigmatic and reiterates the virtues of patience.
An album as ambitious as Vitriseptome really does take a decade to conceive. Beyond the heavy, crunchy riffs a la Morbid Angel, the extreme dissonance of certain passages and the oppressive darkness that pervades all the music, there’s an innumerable amount of detail that will inevitably escape the listener, but which nevertheless will stand out and make all the difference. For Mitochondrion, throwing up more material and rehashing their familiar stylistic elements wasn’t going to be enough to justify making a new album. They had to go further and make the listening experience even more subversive, selective even. But if you dare to get your feet wet, there’s every reason to believe that Vitriseptome is the band’s definitive magnum opus, a contribution that will be hard to surpass in the future.
Beyond dense, angular structures and rapid succession of riffs, there is a multitude of guitar layers, creating an opaque texture that one can masochistically enjoy deciphering. The vocals, shared and varied by three band members, are as technical as they are expressive in their incantatory delivery. Also worth noting are the occasional synthesizers and the sound design, which is mostly appreciated in the introductions, interludes and quieter passages. Yes, there are moments of calm, more introspective, which allow the tension to be lowered, only for it to escalate even further later. These passages often evolve into more doom-metal sections that almost sound ritualistic when set to music. The intention behind such evocations is obvious.
We can conclude that Vitriseptome fully justifies its length, as the attention required is matched only by the time and energy that went into sculpting this album. It’s a contribution that demonstrates the maturity of a band that has assimilated an ultra-niche aesthetic to the point of innovating within self-imposed parameters. A descent into the underworld that will appeal to the most tenacious and proud fans of difficult music and of the unusual.
