Vitriol's new album, Suffer & Become, is now available worldwide via Century Media Records. In celebration, the band is now revealing an unnerving music video for the new single, "He Will Fight Savagely." In this clip, Vitriol embodies the album's concept of suffering, while turning that pain into pleasure by way of torturous suspension art. There were no special effects or camera tricks; the experience was authentic and genuine. The clip, which was creative directed by MM Fabrications and Mark Blanchard and shot and edited by Alexander Bemis, can be found below.
Vitriol comments, "'Savagely' closes out 'Suffer' with an explosion of resolve and survival in the wake of navigating my lesser darkness during what could be described as a spiritual crisis. It sees me reminding myself of a commitment to a life of fruitful conflict, confrontation, and growth. It is about championing actualization over tranquility, and welcoming the suffering of the aspiring overman. Father, I am with you now!"
The album is available digitally as well as in Standard CD Jewelcase, Ltd. Deep Blood Red LP (All ex-US Retail), Orange Crush LP (All US Retail), and Red / Yellow / Black Transp. Splatter LP (Band Exclusive). Order here.
In addition, Vitriol will be embarking on the Chaos and Carnage 2024 tour this spring in support of Cattle Decapitation, Carnifex, Rivers of Nihil, Humanity's Last Breath, and Zenith Passage along with Face Yourself. The epic death metal trek will kick off on April 30 in Mesa, AZ and will conclude nearly a month later on May 26 in Las Vegas. Tickets and VIP upgrades are available here.
The artwork for Suffer & Become was created by Dylan Humphries and can be found below along with the tracklisting.
Suffer & Become tracklisting:
"Shame And Its Afterbirth"
"The Flowers Of Sadism"
"Nursing From The Mother Wound"
"The Isolating Lie Of Learning Another"
"Survival's Careening Inertia"
"Weaponized Loss"
"Flood Of Predation"
"Locked In Thine Frothing Wisdom"
"I Am Every Enemy"
"He Will Fight Savagely"
"Shame And Its Afterbirth":
"The Flowers Of Sadism" video:
"Weaponized Loss" video:
For Portland, Oregon's Vitriol, nothing comes easy. Nothing. The title of their second Century Media album, Suffer & Become, says it all. "The title really sums it up," says guitarist and vocalist Kyle Rasmussen. "I pushed things to a point while making this album where it almost became untenable. Things that were supposed to be done in weeks took months. It wasn't easy, but I think it was suffering well spent."
At the core of Suffer & Become lies a profound sense of extremity and unease. This very essence defines Vitriol as the vanguard in death metal's evolutionary path—a sonic landscape characterized by its profound darkness, density, and the infusion of nanotechnological precision interwoven with intense, seething emotions. Not easy listening in the slightest. Since forming in 2013, Rasmussen and longtime co-conspirator, bassist, and co-vocalist Adam Roethlisberger have worked with a single-minded vision: to push the genre to its breaking point and invent a new uncompromising paradigm in the process. Vitriol is a masterclass in pain – and that's just their jumping-off point.
Recounting Vitriol's initial journey into the outer fringes of extremity, Rasmussen is characteristically thoughtful. "I was starving for something that didn't pull any punches," says Kyle of Vitriol's caustic mission statement, which detonated into the realm of extreme metal with 2013's Antichrist demo. "Death metal was important to me because it speaks to an aggression, a frustration that I had when I was younger. It wasn't just a sonic connection but an emotional connection, which made music almost a means to an end. What I saw happening in extreme metal at the time was almost a removal of emotion in favor of musicality, that fire, that piss and vinegar spirit. Basically, I wanted something that wanted me dead."
With 2017's Pain Will Define Their Death EP, Vitriol took its spot as one of the underground's most uncompromising exponents, leading them to join forces with Century Media. The resultant album, 2019's To Bathe from the Throat of Cowardice, was nothing short of a crucial next step for the band and the genre itself. Hitting the road that year, at first in Europe with Nile and then in the US with Cattle Decapitation and Atheist, and then Vader before the onset of Covid, Vitriol was quick to establish themselves as much of an uncompromising force onstage as they are on record.
"Doing 'Black Seeds of Vengeance' alongside Karl Sanders [of Nile] onstage in Europe on our very first tour was nothing short of a 'pinch me' moment," Kyle recounts from Vitriol's early touring days. "More recently, we were touring with Morbid Angel, and Steve Tucker, who is my favorite Morbid Angel vocalist, came out of his dressing room in a Vitriol t-shirt and exclaimed that we were one of his favorite new bands! That blew my mind as a fan, first and foremost – a total 'Holy Fuck!' moment."
Suffer & Become is nothing short of a benchmark for Vitriol (rounded out by guitarist Daniel Martinez and Matt Kilner). It's as dense and blackened as anything to erupt from Rasmussen's vision of sonic disorder. From the onset of the opening track, "Shame and Its Afterbirth," there's a new sense of openness, grandeur, and occasional beauty in Vitriol's aural arsenal. "I wanted to have an album that had a stark duality to it," says Kyle. "Very high highs and very low lows. We're very familiar with the lows but not so much with the triumphant highs. I wanted the album to have more of a sense of optimism to it, both lyrically and musically. I wanted the album to convey a sense of optimism that probably gets lost in the black maelstrom that is the first album."
Produced by Rasmussen and mixed by Dave Otero (Archspire, Cattle Decapitation), Suffer & Become isn't merely the sound of Vitriol upping the ante in death metal's musical arms race; it is also the sound of salvation for its driving force. "Living in the world of that first album was very difficult for me," says Rasmussen. "It's not a nice place. It was very intentionally imbalanced in the same way a horror film is imbalanced. I wanted a healthier world for me to live in, and I believe I achieved that."
Not that the writing and recording of Suffer & Become was anything short of soul-rending. Rasmussen labored over the creation of the album in the studio, on tour in hotel rooms, to the point of painstaking obsessiveness. Kyle is straightforward about the grueling record-making process and its personal impact. "The record feels a bit like a Jungian Dante's Inferno," he states. "Plumbing the circles of my personal, psychological, and spiritual hell and then purposely refocusing it so it's not the unhinged, dark catharsis of the first album. This record is a lot more vulnerable."
Songs like "Weaponized Loss" or "The Flowers of Sadism" are what Kyle describes as a "dark baptism" in comparison to the absolute darkness of "To Bathe…". The sound of Vitriol remains as joyless and dark as ever, but with a glimmer of hope. Vitriol has taken its trauma-put-to-sound approach to the next level and discovered a new sense of beauty in the blackness. 'Suffer & Become' is death metal with a bloody, beating heart.
Lineup:
Kyle Rasmussen - Guitars and Vocals
Adam Roethlisberger - Bass and Vocals
Matt Kilner - Drums
Daniel Martinez - Guitars
(Photo - Peter Beste)
