Band:	Vitriol
Album:	Suffer & Become
Style:	Technical death metal
Release date:	January 2024

01. Shame And Its Afterbirth
02. The Flowers Of Sadism
03. Nursing From The Mother Wound
04. The Isolating Lie Of Learning Another
05. Survival's Careening Inertia
06. Weaponized Loss
07. Flood Of Predation
08. Locked In Thine Frothing Wisdom
09. I Am Every Enemy
10. He Will Fight Savagely

In December, Santa delivered presents to all the nice kids; in January, Vitriol have come to drag everyone on the naughty list down into the depths of hell.

Brutality in metal is a curious concept; the adjective ‘brutal’ could easily be applied to whole swathes of extreme metal, but a particular niche of death metal has been deemed sufficiently obscene as to merit integrating the adjective into its name. Vitriol’s incendiary sophomore album, Suffer & Become, isn’t being defined as ‘brutal death metal’ in many of the reviews I’ve seen of it, and when comparing it to acts such as Wormhole, Party Cannon and Defeated Sanity, there are stylistic divergences, yet it’s hard to imagine many albums being released this year, or even this decade, to which ‘brutal’ would feel like a more apt descriptor. This record is a relentless sonic juggernaut of a release from front to back, albeit one with a surprising degree of nuance as well.

Suffer & Become comes 5 years after the band’s debut To Bathe From The Throat Of Cowardice, and it sustains the bludgeoning technical violence of that first outing. If you’re looking for bands that they lie in close sonic proximity to, the excess of complexity and aggression takes them into Archspire territory, while the blistering drumming style and blackened hints remind me of a supercharged version of Demigod-era Behemoth (the primary vocal style also has a hint of Nergal to the hoarse growls and passionate exclamations). The full-speed ferocity is also akin to Anaal Nathrakh, and the sickening dissonance on songs such as “Locked In Thine Frothing Wisdom” harks to some of Imperial Triumphant’s grotesque oddness. Put simply, Suffer & Become is not for the faint-hearted; however, it’s also not one-dimensional in its approach.

The record kicks off with its longest song, “Shame And Its Afterbirth”, and after a brief eerie introduction, Vitriol get right stuck into the core sound of the album: rampaging double bass and blasting percussive assault, ravaging growls, and chaotic, rapid riffs. With the dissonant touches and horror-style guitar squeals, there’s a demented energy to the guitarwork, but also frenetic Behemoth-style riffing that offers a touch of accessibility despite the generally explosive nature of the collective instrumentation. On top of that, there are blistering solos breaking up the vocal attacks in exhilarating style, and it is during the first extensive solo on the album that one of those range-expanding flourishes appears, with faint symphonic elements adding a touch of grandeur to the backdrop of the song. This certainly isn’t a symphonic album, but repeat cameos on subsequent songs such as “Survival’s Careening Inertia” and “Weaponized Loss” bring something different to the table.

Other deviations from the full-pelt assault include the more mid-tempo dirge-like opening of “The Flowers Of Sadism”, and the brief detour into slam territory later in the track with the pinging snare. A more unexpected moment is the outright melodic nature of the solo late in “The Isolated Lie Of Learning Another”, and mid-album instrumental “Survival’s Careening Inertia” offers an even more stark contrast, opening with reverberating clean guitar and initially refraining from outright belligerence, even when blast beats begin jackhammering away beneath the surface.

Despite these little nuggets, your enjoyment of the album is going to depend on how you can handle the beastly aggression that overwhelmingly dominates the album’s sound, and on that front, while this is a thoroughly intense listen, Vitriol manage to imbue enough hookiness into these chaotic riffs such that the record offers more satisfaction than just the visceral response to being pummeled to death. Some particularly tasty riffs pop up in songs such as “Flood Of Predation” and “Locked In Thine Frothing Wisdom”, and the conclusion to “He Will Fight Savagely”, with chaotic soloing, background synths, triumphantly rampant drums and dissonant cacophonic riffing, makes for quite an ending.

Not even one month into 2024, Vitriol have well and truly thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of the death metal world with Suffer & Become, and someone out there is going to have to pull something quite special out of the bag to eclipse them in album of the year discussions come year end.