Okay so I’m new to this latest wave of extreme metal that we are currently enjoying, but after hearing Mitochondrion on a compilation CD I decided to check them out and was amazed when I heard the song “Trials” online. I promptly bought their brand new album “Parasignosis” and listened to it about 6 times in three days. That’s very unusual for me, rarely does an album intrigue me enough to warrant more than one listen per day.
This album is torrential. This band understands that heaviness is all about songwriting and production. It’s not about playing as quickly as possible or trying to make an unintelligible amount of racket. But when you listen to this stuff, it can transport you.
Everything is great on this album. The guitars are beautifully dissonant but not too indulgently technical, they are written to express an idea rather than to show off, and the expressed idea is one of apocalyptic proportions. The drums are such that they complement the songs perfectly without distracting from the crushing melodies, which is the mark of the best drummers. The bass is in there somewhere doing its thing and you hear it when you’re supposed to, again, not distracting you from the song’s intention. The vocals are huge. If you were to encounter a tentacled beast in a city that pre-dated mankind it would probably sound like this. I’ve heard a lot of death metal vocals and these are some of the best that I’ve heard. They contribute so much rather than just taking up the space during which someone couldn’t think of any more riffs. From out of this vocal cavern you get lyrics which are also very intelligently written, somewhat verbose perhaps but that’s part of what makes it good, making it sound like you’re opening an ancient tome in a very well executed way. The lyrics also help make the heaviness of the album giving it direction and purpose and do not just exist to fill album liner.
And then there’s the mountain of atmosphere that they put in here; you hear the chains clanking (lots of chains) and the funeral bells and gongs tolling, the pained groans and urgent whispers, and the cavernous space of the overall sound. The atmosphere is so good that they give you ten minutes of it at the end of the album where they throw in some other elements like the accordion, some throat singing, and even a school recorder. It sounds gimmicky but trust me, it works because of the subtlety and thoughtfulness of it all. I’ve listened to some of Mitochondrion’s older stuff and while the writing in those pieces was equally solid, the production here is leagues ahead. If you can’t stand to listen to anything which isn’t “necro” or “kvlt” or whatever then this may not be for you. But this is also not for lovers of squeaky clean compressed production either, it’s big, bad and coming to crush you. Fantastic!
If you order this from Profound Lore records then it’s cheap and comes in a timely fashion, I was very impressed. Also, bonus points for good artwork and packaging. If you listen to metal because you like to hear a sound which is heavier and bigger than anything else, you must give this band a listen.
It’s very fitting that a band like this should have a name like mitochondrion because although mitochondria are microscopic in size, the power that they provide to eukaryotes dominates the planet. In the same way, many headbangers and otherwise might not have heard of this band but their ignorance causes them to miss the fantastic chasm of Armageddon which is Mitochondrion.
By Austin
Mitochondrion
Profound Lore Records
Wow I definitely agree with Austin's review probably one of the best albums of this year (in reality last year but whatever).
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