[Album Review] Vitriol — Suffer and Become
Every so often a metal band comes along that is so abrasive, so jarring, yet so compelling that you cannot be helped but stare into the chaotic abyss that they create with sound. Vitriol is that band. Their sophomore full-length Suffer and Become is a testament that there truly is an innate beauty in abject suffering
Vitriol isn’t a household name, yet, and more so the shame for it. Ane extreme metal (I hesitate to pigeonhole them by merely calling them “Death Metal”) band that blends the mania of Hate Eternal, the cacophony of Anaal Nathraak, and the technical precision of Nile, but mixed in with enough thematic spice to make it their own brand of vile entropy, their sound is not palatable to even the most ardent of extreme metal veterans. Their debut record To Bathe From The Throat Of Cowardice evokes an apt sense of aural violence, and the record backed up that imagery with its musicianship, deliciously distasteful lyricism, and just a general sense of violent savagery that very few among the most extreme acts out there.
Their newest effort Suffer and Become refines the maelstrom of To Bathe… into a keener blade, tempered with experience, and yet sharper due to its deliberate arrangements and more thought-out songwriting. Right from the discordant off-kilter chimes in the intro to the opener “Shame and its Afterbirth”, Vitriol thrives in being unpredictable. You never know whether you’ll get the slash of the knife, the bash of the hammer, or the burn of the poison.
It’s not until you dig deeper into tracks like the single “The Flowers of Sadism” and “Weaponised Loss” with its blackened doom-y theme that you enjoy just how much Vitriol has grown since its debut. With tracks like “Nursing From The Mother Wound”, and more pertinently, my standout track, “The Isolating Lie of Learning Another”, it’s not just the pummelling blast-beats and the tremolo-picked riffs that pull you into it, but there is a pervasive sense of melody that snakes its way ever so intelligently throughout the track. Whether it's via carefully picked chord progression that the guitars arpeggiate over, or through the backdrop of keys and strings, there is a sense of melancholy and yearning that permeates through Suffer and Become.
What better way to usher in their more nuanced terror than the intro section of “Survival’s Careering Inertia”; Vitriol’s brand is taking an expected melody and nudging every note into an uncomfortable space before resolving it into something more expected, even if just for a few notes, before yanking it back into a place of discomfort. This track and others on the record veer eerily close into black metal territory, without fully committing to the grim and frostbitten tropes that come along with the genre.
While all this melody and thoughtful songwriting is all well and good, do NOT be lulled into the feeling that Suffer and Become is afraid to bare its fangs at you. Tracks like “Locked in Thine Frothing Wisdom”, “I Am Every Enemy”, and “He Will Fight Savagely” are celebrations of cacophony with jagged riffs, maniacal solos, carnivorous drums, and vocals that could scare the hair off even the most hardened of death metal fans.
According to guitarist/vocalist Kyle Rasmussen, Suffer and Become is an homage to the circles of hell a la The Divine Comedy, more specifically Dante’s Inferno. He states that each track explores the various nuances of true suffering, and several moments on the record truly boast these concepts. The lyrics are nigh incomprehensible, but the lyrics when discernible/published will be a treat to peruse (if their previous works are anything to go by!). Vitriol has been a three-piece for most of their early career, but Suffer and Become debuts guitarist Stephen Ellis to help Rasmussen put down his esoteric ideas to the strings. Bassist and co-creator Adam Roethlisberger continues to provide co-vocals with equal frequency as a band like Dying Fetus. His deeper more stereotypical growls provide enough anchor for Rasmussen to jettison off with whatever insanity he wants to throw at the listener at that moment. New to the roster as well is drummer Matt Kilner (check out his solo band Nithing, it’s insanity in a bottle!), and his drum work on the record is a masterwork of extreme metal musicianship. He provides exactly what the arrangement needs, without overplaying or stagnating into any particular trope; an essential in a chaotic band like Vitriol.
Suffer and Become is NOT for the faint of heart. It is unpalatable and abrasive. It WILL test your mettle in consuming metal. But for those who can stomach every facet of its mania, the sense of violent catharsis will be well worth the effort! Album of the Year contender, and we are only in January!
