Antinumerology

Hey, sometimes I get notable promos too. This just got a CD re-release so it's been making rounds again as the band enters the studio to record the follow-up to Parasignosis. To this day, that album still remains a landmark of the suffocating, dissonant atmosphere that came to permeate death metal in the '10s. These guys and Portal are the two bands that epitomize it. Elements of the sound are often borrowed by others, but there's a certain devtion to anti-melody, cluttered, static production and level of technicality that defines both Mitochondrion and their Australian brethren. It's basically death metal for people who only listen to death metal. Live, they're equally haunting. I had the pleasure of seeing them a couple of years back and they really nail the schizophrenic, multi-pronged vocal approach (not to mention the drummer's a beast). There's a lot of hype building around this new album, because it's been about four years and Antinumerology is the last bite-sized snack we've gotten from the band, guitarist and bassist's contributions to Auroch (and the split with them) notwithstanding. It's only fair we give it the time and recognition it deserves, especially when it has awesome cover art.

Side A gives up all of the features we've come to know and enjoy in Mitochondrion: cacophonous blasting and riffing; twisting, layered, everpresent vocals and abrupt, unpredictable transitions all in a little six-minute package. Sometimes the sudden shifts work to the band's benefit, sometimes it's a bit jarring and awkward, but it usually adds to the charm of the music more than anything. Certain sections work better than others, but this may also be one of the creepier songs I've heard from the band. Side B is probably where it's at, though. "137 (Mors Formulae)" is an absolute ripper of a track once it locks into that sweet black metal groove about halfway through. It's a quick, intense burst of riffing within a three-minute package, and it's among my favorite songs Mitochondrion has written. The third song is more-or-less an atmospheric outro, but it's a listenable wind-down from the nine minutes of chaos that preceded it.

And...well, that's it. This is only 12 minutes long. Antinumerology arrives in a burst out of nowhere, obliterates everything, and then slowly fades out into oblivion. They're a wee fragment more influenced by black metal now, and there's a little bit more constant tension in the riffs as opposed to the huge, winding buildups that could span multiple tracks on Parasignosis. It adds an extra layer to the sound, although this does lack the depth of composition of a full-length album (which is to be expected, obviously). This still definitively Mitchondrion, but there's a subtle evolution present in their sound that I can only hope with fully bloom on the next full length as the band tries to vault themselves back to the front of the dissonant death metal movement. For now, this just became available on CD, so get it while you can!

Alongside Portal and Antediluvian, Mitochondrion were once the front-runners of the dissodeath movement, though they were a bit different than the usual caverncore fodder, they still pretty much fit the mold of things to come. The band were pretty much on fire between 2008’s Archaeaeon and 2013’s Antinumerology, yet aside from a random track on a split in 2016, not much happened in their camp over the last four years. Then, all at once, Krucyator Productions announces the reissue of Antinumerology, for the first time on CD, and the band’s current label, Profound Lore Records announced that the band had booked studio time for an upcoming full length.

Four years after its initial release, Antinumerology still retains a vicious and lasting potency. The three tracks, clocking in at just over twelve minutes in length, are dense and unyielding, showcasing the hallmarks of their dissonant, discordant death metal. Technically proficient; effectively jarring; wielding all of their destructive power in a condensed format. In a scene that has become oversaturated and done to death, sometimes one should revisit the ones that led the charge in the first place.

Antinumerology is a bit of an oddity in Mitochondrion’s history: it sounds like it was dredged from the pits of hell; it’s dense; it’s complex; it will knock you on your ass if you’re not ready for it. Yet the band’s music has always had a mystical and disturbing sense of atmosphere that would continuously build over the course of the album; leaving the listener writhing in the corner. With Antinumerolgy, Mitochondrion brings a viciously paced burst of deep and venomous death metal with a blackened aura that goes straight for the jugular. The complex, discordant riffs are still present, battling the deep, ruminating bursts of murkiness. The percussion is precise and controlled, yet it still manages to sound organic amid the bursts of frenetic fills and blasting. While it’s heavy and thunderous and filled with murk, it’s probably the band’s most straight forward and accessible release thus far. To those few who have been living under a rock for the past decade, Antinumerology might be a pretty good place to start.

Written for The Metal Observer.

It is the business of Canadians to be dangerous! Never in my wildest imagination could I envision such a friendly place (at least from all my experiences there) harbor such a grotesque extreme metal scene which has churned forth not only the superb Quebecois black metal, and a number of my favorites 80s thrash and speed metal bands, and...Jon Mikl Thor, but also a whole host of black/death and war metal acts. Not all of them are amazing, but they at least make it seem like there's some life left in attempts to bastardize and cross-pollinate genres and produce something worthwhile in all the chaos. Mitochondrion is no exception: their two full-lengths were quality mutations of cavernous death metal and atmospheric black nastiness, and through the Antinumerology EP they give us a hint of our dooms to come, well those of us who weren't already ended by Parasignosis. I was actually slain by that album but have an annoying tendency to brush off the ol' gravedirt and give it another go, eh? EH? See, dangerous.

This is short, tight, visceral, and just about everything you might have dug about the earlier albums albeit the variation and atmosphere might have been curbed at times in favor of incendiary directness, or about as direct as these dissonant blasphemers are going to get. The steady moving molasses of haunted notation and apocryphal, morbid and resonant gutturals is interjected with sequences of blasting excess, vulgar war metal which is so unfriendly as to stain the very fabric of Creation. Blasphemy meets Incantation with a few hints of Deathspell Omega. I felt that not only the compositional choices, but also the mix of this material seemed a little more raw and misshapen than the past albums, and I wouldn't say I favored that change, but at the same time those who were seeking a more angry and violent Mitochondrion will feel as if the mission has been accomplished. There's a strange trend here where as you get into the deeper minutes of content on the B-side, the material becomes more memorably atmospheric, and so I tended to enjoy the creepy title track which closed it out more than the first track "Insummation", but then that is the single most varied piece on the 7" so the mileage may vary.

It's all ugly, but then even the ugly ones need some loving once in awhile, and I don't imagine those cretins and misanthropes who turn to a band like Mitochondrion for consolation from the sanity and structure of the universe will feel highly disappointed with what they've written here. Personally, it's not as effective as hearing one of the full-lengths, because this is not necessarily a band I want to visit briefly...I'm more into full immersion in their disturbed minds, spending time in that uncomfortable universe where the impenetrable blackness between stars is ichor. Fell god-stuff, philosophical ruminations translated through alien minds. The Antinumerology did not sate me as much as listening through a full Mitochondrion record, or one of their foreign analogs like Portal or Impetuous Ritual. But as an horror d'ouvre to bridge the void between the British Columbians' more substantial journeys, this is a respectable, (dis)functional nightmareland.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

I must admit that I haven’t had a chance to check any of the previous Mitochondrion recordings yet, even though I had their two full length albums (“Archaeaeon” from 2008 and “Parasignosis” from 2011) on my shopping list for a long time. I’ve been postponing in time the purchase of these albums, because there was always something else what popped up and I wanted to get it immediately and so Mitochondrion is still waiting for the right time (I hope that when I finally will get the money for these albums they will still be available hehe)… But when I saw that Dark Descent Records has released Mitochondrion’s new 7”EP I decided to get it right away, because such singles are usually sold out very quickly and later you can either pay double of triple money for it or you just won’t be able to find it anywhere. And so “Antinumerology” is the first recording of Mitochondrion, which I had a chance and pleasure to listen to. And damn, I wish I already had these two full albums in my collection as well, as this EP is just brilliant and certainly it was worth getting it.

Well, I wish I could already say something about the whole concept of this EP, as I have a strong feeling like everything on “Antinumerology” has been deeply thought through and everything has a meaning here, including the mysterious symbols hidden within the whole artwork of the EP and spread all over the booklet. I didn’t have time to read the lyrics though and so I feel like I still need to learn what “Antinumerology” is all about to really experience the music of Mitochondrion fully… Certainly this band is not your average, pointless death / black metal act, with meaningless lyrics… I will certainly sacrifice some of my spare time later to try to explore what it is all about… But in the meantime I can write few words about the music… and Mitochondrion offers really crushing and massively heavy piece of doomy black death metal, which meats my expectations fully. I mean there are few similar bands, which I worship, like Father Befouled, Grave Miasma, Abyssal and few more, even such Incantation must have had a strong influence on Mitochondrion music, but what is really interesting is that those Canadians managed to create something unique and their own, even if it is based on a strong death / black metal foundation. There’s something really intriguing and possessing about “Antinumerology”, almost hypnotizing in a way the riffing draws the attention of the listener like the light will lead you in the dark and you’ll just stare at the lightened point somewhere in the dark horizon, trying to follow its lead. It is almost the same with this music… it will not leave you careless and more so, it will force you to listen to it carefully and won’t let you go until the last sound will end… it will hypnotize you and crush you, as this music is just damn heavy, so brutal, but at the same time it contains many moments, which are almost catchy, with some truly awesome, awesome riffs. That can especially be heard with the songs "137 (Mors Formulae)" and "Antinumerology" from side B, which are just bloody spectacular. But really, the entire EP is just a fantastic listening experience and so damn impressive that I just have listened to this EP for about ten times and will repeat that tomorrow once more…
Final rate: 95/100