Death metal battalion Vitriol have announced they will release their sophomore full-length, Suffer & Become, via Century Media Records on January 26th. To accompany this news, they have also shared the album’s first single and video, “The Flowers of Sadism,” created by Vile Luxe Entertainment. Check it out below.
Pre-order Suffer & Become here.
Vitriol guitarist and vocalist Kyle Rasmussen explains of the single’s deeply personal themes, ““Flowers…” explores the topic of early developmental trauma and the resulting emotional alchemy that can lead to the development of sadistic impulses. While not being an ideal strategy in the presence of healthier alternatives, embracing my more vicious instincts was the key to my psychological and emotional survival at a time when my environment was both hostile and inescapable. It marks the beginning of a complicated journey of seduction by the necessary evils adopted in the pursuit of that survival.”
Suffer & Become tracklisting:
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
Running Time: (00:42:14)
Producer // Mixing // Mastering: Dave Otero
Album artwork:Dylan Humphries
Physical Formats:
Standard CD Jewelcase
Ltd. Deep Blood Red LP (All ex-US Retail)
Orange Crush LP (All US Retail)
Red / Yellow / Black Transp. Splatter LP (Band Exclusive)
More from Vitriol:
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.”
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.
Suffer & Become is 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.“
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.”
Line-Up:
Kyle Rasmussen – Guitars and Vocals
Adam Roethlisberger – Bass and Vocals
Matt Kilner – Drums
Daniel Martinez – Guitars