When our resident death metal professor, Ferrous Beuller, covered To Bathe from the Throat of Cowardice, the debut full-length from Portland’s Vitriol, he was struck by the sheer heaviness that dominated the record. And while he noted the enormous potential displayed by the band, he bemoaned the lack of balancing contrast, a lack that prevented the monstrous material from making the intended impact. Now, I like To Bathe… a lot more than Ferrous did, but as a fellow contrast-lover, I have to agree with his general assessment. And so, apparently, does the band. In the promo materials for follow-up Suffer & Become, vocalist and guitarist Kyle Rasmussen states ‘I wanted to have an album that had a stark duality to it. Very high highs and very low lows. I wanted the album to convey a sense of optimism that probably gets lost in the black maelstrom that is the first album.’ With this in mind, I pressed play on Suffer & Become, wondering if this new approach would still live up to the band’s name.
Boy, does it ever. Suffer & Become takes just about everything about To Bathe… and improves upon it ten-fold. Vitriol still carries a base sound defined by the Floridian über-heaviness of Hate Eternal, with bits of the bombastic blackened brutality of Behemoth, the crippling clinicality of Cryptopsy, and the acidic, anguished absurdity of Anaal Nathrakh, but this time around, the compositions (and production) allow for a bit more breathing room—and the album benefits greatly because of it. Embedded single “Weaponized Loss” is perhaps the best example of what Vitriol is offering this time around, with all of the aforementioned influences swirling together in the event horizon of the band’s immense heaviness.
From the opening notes of first track “Shame and Its Afterbirth,” it’s clear that Vitriol have embraced the need for a more varied approach for their auditory assault. A creepy, downcast intro paves the way, allowing the following onslaught to hit that much harder. Most of the rest of the track is relentlessly fast, but it contains a surprising amount of melody with some incredible guitar work. Next comes “The Flowers of Sadism,” a tune that begins with a much slower, groovier approach by employing some touches of the band’s deathcore roots. But the mid-track instrumental “Survival’s Careening Inertia” provides the most exquisite use of contrast on the record. The song begins beautiful and clean, and even when it ups the pace, there’s a triumphant tone to the music. But all of that changes around the two-minute mark when things take a turn for the darker, ending in a symphonic bludgeoning that would make Fleshgod Apocalypse jealous. New drummer Matt Kilner (Nithing) puts on an absolute clinic on the track, and it highlights just how much he brings to the table.
Suffer & Become is one of those rare records that works just as well when taken in as a surface-level cacophony as it does when judiciously consumed with attention to detail. Vitriol’s sound is overwhelming in the best way imaginable, and it’s incredibly satisfying to just lay back and absorb the beatdown. But if you want to put your headphones on and mine the nooks and crannies of these songs, you could probably listen to the album once a day for the next several months and still walk away with appreciation for some newly discovered lick, fill, vocal, or songwriting element. Co-vocalists Rasmussen and Adam Roethlisberger (who also gives an incredible performance on bass) are absolute monsters, and the virtuosity displayed by the band, not to mention the sonic palette, reminds me of another technically proficient Pacific Northwest band that I know and love: Aethereus. I’d list standout tracks for you, but quite honestly, each and every track here has something that makes it a highlight, and the whole package will yield far greater enjoyment when taken in as whole.
Rasmussen describes Suffer & Become as a ‘Jungian Dante’s Inferno,’ the product of a period of intense personal introspection for him—and the integration that occurred as a result. As such, the record shows that Vitriol, the band, has undergone the same transformation; the pure rage, born of suffering, expressed on the band’s debut has been metabolized, emerging with a healthy dose of perspective and nuance. And thanks to this contrast, Vitriol’s sound has become something altogether more powerful—and heavy—in the process.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 128 kbps mp3
Label: Century Media Records
Websites: vitriolwarfare.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/vitriolwarfare
Releases Worldwide: January 26th, 2024
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